Catching a Glimpse
by SunniGummi
Summary: Jasper/Maddie bonding story. Whilst out on a hunt, Jasper is suddenly overcome by the smell of a hiker, even though he had done so well after that unfortunate incident on Bella's birthday. He settles on the only logical explanation for this, and it looks like Maddie is in big trouble. Warning: There might be spanking/ mention of spanking. Don't like, don't read.
1. Chapter 1

**Hello everyone! **

**I got reviews and PMs asking me to do a Jasper/Maddie bonding story, and so I grabbed my netbook and started writing it for you. I'm not sure if it turned out the way you guys wanted or expected it to, but... s****till, I hope you like it! **;-)

**Disclaimer: Twilight belongs to Stephenie Meyer – I'm not Stephenie Meyer. Ergo...? Exactly, Twilight does not belong to me.**

* * *

It was a boring Saturday afternoon and the rain was quietly drumming against the large windows of their new home, blurring the view of the outside world.

Maddie didn't really mind, as she did not really feel at home in this place. Both the surroundings and the house were strange and made her feel that they didn't belong.

They had moved to West Virginia a little more than two weeks ago... It was the first time she experienced moving with the family - and not because the time had come and they needed to settle down somewhere else or because people had become suspicious of them. No, this time it was because something unexpected had happened, and it made her realise how fast things could change.

She came home from school one day and when she entered the house, she immediately knew something was off. A few pieces of furniture were missing, there were no jackets and coats hanging on the hallstand anymore and the sudden eerie silence in the house was almost deafening to her. The others had already left and it was only Carlisle and Esme waiting for her.

The Mercedes was laden with suitcases and boxes filled with a few personal belongings. Esme had packed some clothes for Maddie and a few things she knew she liked and wanted to keep, and when the girl just stood there, staring at the two pathetic cardboard boxes that apparently held all her stuff, she was allowed to go to her room one last time for one minute to collect whatever else she didn't want to leave behind and what Esme had failed to pack.

Even though one minute was more than enough time for a vampire, Maddie felt that it was over way too quickly. She hadn't been prepared for this, and so she didn't know what to take.

And then they got into the car and left.

They left the house, the town and eventually the state.

And only when they were on their way out of the county did Esme tell her where they were going and that they wouldn't return.

Just like that. No return, no nothing.

They didn't even give her time to change out of her uniform, and when they told her her clothes were in the trunk and they would not stop just so that she could get changed, she whined that she wanted to drive with either Rose or Emmett - but they said No. So she kicked against Carlisle's seat and demanded that they go back or let her drive with someone else, and instead of complying they just told her to behave and be quiet.

Now she was lying on the brown leather couch in the living room, watching TV on a small screen with her head resting in Rose's lap while Rose was absent-mindedly flipping through a magazine.

Maddie had to admit that Forks hadn't been the most exciting place to be, but it was a metropolis in comparison to where they were now. There was absolutely nothing to do, this place didn't smell like home, the rooms seemed tiny and the ceilings way too low, giving the house an oppressing atmosphere and making her feel like a prisoner.

Even their holiday home at the lake was so much bigger than this one - well, at least she thought it was - and she had no idea why they hadn't chosen to go there. It's even already fully furnished, there were bears for them to feed on and apart from a few bad memories, it was a cool place and she would like to go back there.

They had only moved because Edward wanted them to.

Jasper had almost attacked his girlfriend, and then Edward panicked, broke up with her and made them move.

Funny enough, he wasn't here anymore. One night he had sat down at the kitchen table with Carlisle and Esme while the rest of them had been sent outside to go on a hunt. And when they came back, he was gone.

It looked like Esme had been crying and Carlisle barely spoke a word – nobody knew when or if he would come back.

The next day Esme had moved Maddie's things into the other room that was a little bigger, had a nicer view and a small balcony, because with Edward gone he wouldn't need it. Maddie couldn't care less as she didn't like any of the rooms.

The problem was that she just didn't like being here, and it felt like nothing could change that. Everyone in the family appeared to be so sad and quiet in this place, even though Rose had assured her that it was only the adjusting process at first. They needed to make this house their home first and settle in, and then everything would go back to normal.

But Edward was gone and no one knew where he was as he barely answered any of their calls or messages... even Alice had trouble seeing him.

To makes matters even worse Jasper was feeling overly guilty since Bella's birthday, because he knew that him losing control was what had made Edward demand that they moved, and it had eventually chased their brother away who was suffering of heartache, sadness, desperation and self-loathing.

So these two couldn't be in the same room together and they hadn't spoken a word ever since that day. Well, now it didn't matter anymore as Edward was gone, but it had negatively influenced the entire family.

Maddie's eyelids drooped as the newsreader was droning on and on about stuff she couldn't care less about, and she readjusted herself on the sofa to be a little bit more comfortable while she was feeling so very sluggish and bored.

* * *

An hour or so passed, when all of a sudden the porch door flew open and Jasper stormed into the room, closely followed by Alice and Emmett.

"_You!_" he bellowed and pointed a finger at Maddie, who gasped in shock and sat upright, then scooted back on the couch and closer to Rosalie.

"You! Come here _right now_!" he shouted while approaching them with angry steps, his gaze still fixed on the petite girl that just stared at him wide-eyed.

Rose dropped her magazine and shot up, taking a step in front of her sister while glaring at her blonde brother.

"What's wrong with you?" she queried and put her hands on her hips, frowning.

"Get out of my way, Rosalie," he retorted in a voice that resembled a growl.

"Over my dead body."

"Jasper, please just calm down!" Alice beseeched her mate, while Emmett looked like he was contemplating dragging his brother back outside and maybe even give him a few slaps to the back of his head to help him get back to his senses.

"All of you, stay the fuck out of it!" he yelled, his expression livid and his eyes becoming pitch-black.

Carlisle and Esme came running down the stairs at hearing the ruckus downstairs, and they stopped right behind the couch, looking at their children with shock and confusion written all over their faces.

"What's going on here?" Carlisle demanded, and luckily he didn't need to wait long for an answer as Jasper was more than willing to brief the rest of the family of what the girl had done.

His venom was boiling with furious rage. "I almost attacked a human – because of _her_!" he accused. He was breathing heavily and his eyes were narrowing in anger.

Maddie glanced over her shoulder at Carlisle, who gave her a frown of confusion before he looked back up at his enraged son.

"Calm down, Jasper, and tell us what happened."

But Jasper ignored his father as he took a step to the side to be able to glare past his blonde sister. "Come here," he ordered in a dangerously low hiss and curled his finger at her. "Let's see if you'll do that again once I'm through with you."

Rose crouched and hissed sharply at Jasper, while both Alice and Emmett grabbed the blonde soldier by his arms to restrain him in case he would try and attack one of the girls.

"Let me go!"

Jasper growled at his bulky brother, and so Emmett gave him a growl of his own, daring him to make a move towards them while Esme put her hands on Maddie's shoulders to soothe her and fend Jasper off in case he would try and lash out at her.

"_Enough!_" Carlisle called authoritatively, "All of you! No more growling, no more hissing and no more threats!"

All eyes were on him and the room immediately grew silent.

Giving a satisfied nod at seeing that they had stopped acting like maniacs, Carlisle now took his time to look back and forth between his children, before he eventually fastened his eyes on Jasper.

"Son, do you need to step outside for a moment?" Carlisle asked, giving his son a scrutinising look as he still looked furious. He wanted to defuse the situation as he couldn't have him lose it like that again and then end up attacking one of his siblings.

"No, I'll stay right here where I can see that little devil," he countered, fixing the young girl with a venomous look.

"Jasper? _Jasper!_" Carlisle snapped his fingers to draw his attention, then pointed his index and middle finger at his own eyes the moment Jasper finally looked at him. "Eyes on me. Tell me what happened," he ordered.

"That crazy girl made me feel the urge to attack a human! If it hadn't been for Alice and Emmett, I would have done it – maybe even killed half the town!" he ranted while his nostrils flared of anger.

Rose looked at Maddie and mouthed, 'Did you really?' while giving her a look of bewilderment and disbelief.

Carlisle turned his head to give his youngest a questioning look, who just seemed to make herself even smaller under his gaze.

Looking back up again at his enraged son, Carlisle queried, "Why would your sister do that, Jasper?"

"She is a spoilt brat and doesn't like this town, so – _of course _– she decides to force us to move! Isn't that right?!" he yelled and his fists shook with the anger that was coursing through him and that he barely managed to keep under control.

"Madeline, is that true?"

Maddie shook her head and hugged her knees even tighter to her chest while Rose sat back down next to her and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Liar!" he screamed and was about to lunge for her to force the truth out of her, but Emmett stretched his arm out in front of him to hinder him from doing just that. At the same time Carlisle stepped in between Jasper and the couch the girls were sitting on, pushing the coffee table out of the way with his knee to properly block his son's path in case he would still try to charge.

"Tell them the truth!" Jasper's dark eyes blazed, and a barely audible growl rumbled in his chest – he didn't like having his way blocked.

His father looked sternly into his eyes. "Control yourself, boy."

Jasper breathed heavily, trying to obey his father. He was absolutely furious with Maddie, furious about the danger she had put the family in and her unscrupulousness to use him like that to get her way. _This deceitful, little-_

All of a sudden he was hit by an emotion that didn't quite fit the situation.

A sense of fear.

His eyes lost focus for a moment as he concentrated on his gift to see where that emotion was coming from.

Esme was a little afraid, yes, afraid that someone might get hurt, but it wasn't very strong as she was probably confident that there were enough people in the room that were still thinking clearly and rationally and wouldn't allow him to attack the child.

No, it was Maddie.

She was scared. Of him.

She usually got mad when her plans didn't work out, because she felt that it wasn't fair that she didn't get her way and because she was convinced that she was always in the right... Well, sometimes she started feeling nervous as she knew she was in trouble, but right now he clearly perceived that she was scared, and it was directed at him.

She feared him.

He cocked his head to the side and stared at his father's chest like he could see right through him and at the girl he was shielding. Yes, he was trying to decipher why she would suddenly feel that way. A new trick? Perhaps to make him have mercy on her? Or was it only meant to fool Carlisle and Esme? Maybe she had finally realised that she was in very deep trouble as nobody would take such a sneaky act lightly... good. Was about time.

"Rosalie? Take her upstairs," Carlisle said, and Jasper heard Rose whisper to Maddie to get up. They quietly left the room and ascended the stairs, and once they reached her room and had shut the door behind them, he noticed the atmosphere change again.

"Sit down," Carlisle requested while looking at each of his children. He must have figured that it would be a lot easier now to find out what had happened and why it had happened.

Without Maddie in the room Jasper would be calmer, of course, and Carlisle always tried to separate his children when they were arguing or about to fight, to make sure nobody would get hurt as that could easily happen when one or both of them were so on edge.

Rose would stay with her and talk to her - that way they'd get to the bottom of this a lot sooner than when they would just have everyone sit down together and try to have a talk without ending up growling or hissing at each other.

Carlisle took a few steps back and seated himself on the couch before Esme sank down onto the cushions right next to him, giving him a nervous look that made him cover her hands with one of his own and give them a gentle rub.

Alice and Emmett sat on the other leather couch without taking their eyes off Jasper, who just remained standing.

"Jasper, sit down, I said," Carlisle ordered in a soft but firm tone and watched his son hesitate for a moment before he eventually obeyed him.

As soon as the boy was seated next to his brother, Carlisle gave him a curt nod before looking at Emmett.

"What happened?"

"We left the house about one and a half hours ago to go on a hunt. We headed north for the lake to check for a herd of deer, when Jasper suddenly...," he trailed off and glanced at his brother, who sat there with his teeth clenched.

"When he suddenly what? Speak, Emmett."

Emmett sighed. "… when he suddenly changed direction and headed for the town. He didn't listen to a word we said, but Alice told me what would happen if we didn't restrain him. We somehow managed to catch him, then wrestled him to the ground and pinned his arms to his back until he was back to his senses. There was the faintest of human smells in the air, maybe a hiker... and Jasper had obviously been heading for where that person was. He told us that he was suddenly hit by the smell, it was so much stronger than it was supposed to be considering the distance. It caught him completely off guard."

Carlisle rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "You didn't have any trouble with your bloodlust since we moved here, am I right, Jasper?"

"Yes, Sir."

"I saw him attacking the hiker and then he headed for the hospital," Alice piped up, and when her father's gaze fell on her she gulped. "... Sir."

"It's all right, Alice, you are free to speak. Tell me what you know, honey."

"That's it," she admitted embarrassedly and bit down on her bottom lip.

Carlisle frowned at that answer. "Did your sister compel Jasper to feed on humans?"

Alice's face scrunched up and she shrugged her shoulders apologetically. "I don't know, Daddy. I was focussing on Edward and where he was, I was trying to see how Bella was doing and... and..."

"Oh, baby," Esme cooed and immediately got up from the couch to take a seat on the armrest right next to her petite daughter. She hugged her with one arm and started to softly stroke her head. "it's all right. Nothing happened, everything's all right. You're under a lot of stress, honey, please don't feel responsible for this now."

"Ssh, Allie, it's not your fault," Jasper whispered calmingly and reached past his brother to place a hand on his wife's knee. "It's _hers_."

Emmett shook his head and squinted his eyes at him like he just couldn't believe what he had just said. "Would you stop saying that, bro? You have no idea if she has done something and what you are accusing her of doesn't even make sense!"

Carlisle raised a hand. "Calm down, Emmett. You, too, Jasper. I don't want to hear any arguing or see you attacking each other. This is quite the serious accusation, Jasper, and I would like to find out what happened without having you two making the situation worse. I know this move wasn't easy and I know that all of you are worried about your brother, but I expect you to conduct yourselves and don't take the stress as of late out on each other."

"This is not about Edward, Carlisle, it has nothing to do with him. This is about her putting our lives at risk by doing as she pleases and ignoring the rules that are set in place to protect her and us. She has just endangered our entire coven by manipulating me!" Then he sat a little straighter and cleared his throat as though preparing himself and the others for what he would say next. "I ask for permission to deal with her myself, Sir."

Emmett leaned back and practically gaped at him. "Are you for real?"

"Jasper-," Carlisle started to say, but he was interrupted.

"Do you just want to stand by and watch her disrespecting me all the time? Especially now that she has clearly gone to far, and risked our exposure?"

Rubbing his forehead as though trying to ease some of the tension that had developed since he had come downstairs, Carlisle replied, "We don't know the true facts of the matter yet."

"It's obvious that she wronged me and quite frankly, I've had enough. It was _that_ close, Carlisle, just imagine I would have gone hunting without Alice and Emmett."

And instead of giving him an answer, Carlisle looked at him like he was contemplating something.

* * *

******It might not look like a bonding story just yet, hahaha, it really doesn't, but we'll be getting there eventually. I cannot tell you how many chapters this story is going to have, but it won't be awfully many, I think. I have the first four finished and am working on the fifth chapter at the moment. Just decided to post this now, because otherwise I will probably never finish the story (I wrote the first three chapters in September... *whistles*). Yes, I tend to be lazy.**

******Sooo... guilty or not guilty, hm? ;)**

******Thanks for reading guys and let me know what you think!**


	2. Chapter 2

As soon as Rose shut the door behind her, she leaned against it with her back and watched the girl in front of her. Maddie stood in the middle of the room, looking at her with big eyes and Rose wasn't sure if the look she was giving her was one of fear or guilt, a mixture of both or maybe something completely different.

"Maddie?"

"I didn't do that, I didn't," she said and lightly shook her head.

Rose frowned. "You didn't make him attack a human?"

"No! Why would I do something like that?"

"I don't know," she replied and shrugged her shoulders. "Why would he accuse you of doing just that?"

The girl started chewing on her bottom lip, then took a step back and slumped down on her bed. But instead of holding her sister's gaze, she looked down at her folded hands in her lap and started fidgeting.

Tilting her head to the side, Rosalie watched her for a moment before she asked in a quiet voice, "Is there something you need to tell me?"

Maddie pulled one shoulder up – it was a half-shrug, just showing Rose all the more that something wasn't right here.

Oh dear.

With a sigh Rosalie pushed away from the door and approached her sister before she sat down next to her. Maddie scooted back a little and pulled her legs up, sitting Indian style – she probably wanted to be as comfortable as possible while admitting to what she had done.

But instead of saying something, she just hung her head, even though she must know there was only Rose with her in the room... Rose, who quickly grew impatient with her antics and was waiting for her to explain.

"So?" she asked after a minute of Maddie remaining completely silent – she didn't even breathe.

The girl's head snapped back up. "I wanna go for a run!" she suddenly exclaimed and made to jump up from the bed, but Rose wouldn't have any of it.

"You," she said and kept her in place with her hand around her upper arm, "are staying right here. Out with it... what happened?"

The direct question made her cringe. "I didn't know it would be like that... I thought it would work," she replied in a tone of voice that sounded suspiciously like whining.

Rose hated whining.

"Just tell me what it is you've done! We are getting nowhere with you beating around the bush. Did you compel Jasper?"

Glancing up at her before quickly averting her eyes again, Maddie let out a quiet sigh.

"... yes," she admitted and it was almost too low for Rose to perceive despite her sharp vampire hearing.

Oh, dear... but since when would she lie to her face like that? Just moments ago, she said that she hadn't made him attack a human...

No, this couldn't be. No, there was more to this... she just needed to ask the right questions, it seemed. "What did you tell him to do?"

"I didn't know this would happen... I never wanted him to attack anyone, you have to believe me," she beseeched her sister and gave her a pleading look.

No matter how hard Rose tried, she would never have Esme's or Carlisle's patience. In fact, she had next to no patience when it came to serious matters. "Tell. Me," she demanded.

"I made him unable to smell humans," the girl admitted in a quiet voice and glanced up at Rose through a thick curtain of dark hair.

Rose squinted at her, and Maddie averted her eyes again.

"You... _why would you do that?_"

"I swear I thought it was a good idea! Everyone was so down, Jasper felt so guilty and moody and he refused to go outside... Edward left because of what happened in Forks... I thought that... I don't know... that maybe I could help."

Oh, and that's why Jasper wasn't struggling anymore when he went outside again. He had been doubting his self-control, felt responsible for having ruined Edward's relationship as he had been the reason why Edward had decided they needed to move and he needed to break up with his human girlfriend. He had started to project again at times, as sometimes his control slipped without him noticing. Alice was worried about him, worried about Edward and Bella, and Esme seemed to be so sad about Edward's departure, the pain they had caused his human girlfriend and knowing that Jasper was beating himself up over having lost his self-control and almost attacking her. Whenever they came home, Esme looked like she had been crying, but of course she denied it when they asked.

Carlisle was working even more than he had back in Forks, like he needed to distract himself and couldn't bear spending any more time at home than he really needed to, and overall the atmosphere at home was more than just a little oppressing and uncomfortable.

Additionally, nobody had stopped to think about what this would do to the youngest. It was the first time she had experienced moving out of the blue, experienced what it felt like having to give everything up and leave most of their things and the life they had led behind. She didn't get the chance to say Goodbye to the few people she might have considered friends or take the time to pack her own things, and now she was forced to settle down in a new place where nobody knew how long they would be staying there. These circumstances probably made it hard for her to let go of what they had in Forks and start a new life here - the move was too sudden and she just couldn't get enthusiastic about this new place.

That's why they mostly kept to themselves – they knew what it felt like having to live with the uncertainty of when or if they would have to move away again, and they knew that it wasn't much fun spending time with people if you might not be able to see them again.

And they hadn't taken the time to really explain the move to her as it had slipped their minds due to all the stress... and then having the family slowly fall apart must have been very unsettling and scary for her.

To make this a little bit easier for herself and the others, she had tried to help. Tried to make at least someone feel better. And seeing that Jasper wasn't struggling with his fear of killing someone anymore and was finally going outside again, Esme, too, had been a little bit more at ease. So looking at it now, Maddie had managed to help two people at once.

While Rose was busy mulling things over, she didn't see the silent tears of frustration and fear cascading down the girl's cheeks. But when she eventually noticed, she gasped and immediately reached out to hug the girl.

Maddie scooted further away, looking at her with wide eyes like she was expecting Rose to be mad at her.

"Ssh."

She moved closer to the girl, then wrapped her arms around her, immediately feeling her venom tears seep through the fabric of her blouse and make the skin on her neck and collar bone prickle.

When she pulled away again, she wanted to wipe the rest of the girl's tears away, but Maddie just dragged the sleeve of her shirt across her face and nose.

"I'm so stupid," she mumbled in between sniffling.

Rose stroked her hair and lightly shook her head. "No, you are not."

"But I can never do anything right, I always mess up."

"Shush, that's not true and you know it. I think it was a good idea and I know that you meant well, but it would have been better if you had told us what you were planning on doing."

She sniffed before looking up at Rose through wet eyelashes. "You would have said No. Besides, I tried talking to Jasper about it but whenever I knocked on his door or saw him downstairs, he just told me to leave him alone. When I wanted to ask Carlisle, he said he didn't have time and we would talk later, but then he somehow never had time for me. Esme is so sad, I didn't want to bother her. And she kinda drove me insane... she was humming all day like a crazy person while she put clean clothes into the washer, scrubbed the spotless bathrooms and vacuumed the house four times a day... I thought I would only make it worse."

Tucking a strand of hair behind Maddie's ear so it wouldn't get sticky with venom, Rose tilted her head to the side to look her in the face and said, "You could have told me. I always hear you out, so don't tell me I would have just said No. Why didn't you tell me or Em?"

"You and Emmett were the only ones that weren't suddenly completely different... I didn't want to annoy you."

Rose could have groaned at hearing that. "You thought by talking to us about the situation, we would have suddenly changed and turned sad like the others."

She nodded her head and sniffed once more.

"Maddie, you are sad. We all are, and being sad is okay. We can get through this together. And if you don't feel well or don't understand something or something scares you, then talk to us, I've told you countless times."

"You are sad that Edward left? He isn't exactly your favourite brother...," Maddie remarked, making Rose smirk.

"Well, I only have two brothers and I prefer to spend more time with Jasper than with Edward. He and I don't always get along - I've just known him for too long, I guess."

"You don't get along because you've known him for too long?"

"Yes, I think that's the reason... or maybe not. It's difficult. But we are still siblings, and so yes, I do miss my brother, believe it or not."

Maddie nodded her head, before she let out a defeated sigh. "I'm in trouble now," she stated matter-of-factly.

"Well, you did use your ability on someone without permission, and you know that is not okay. But you didn't do it for your own advantage and you didn't tell Jasper to attack a human."

"... so?"

"To be honest, I don't know," she told her and let out a sigh. "First we will tell Carlisle and Esme what you've just told me, and then we'll see. I think we all are a little bit at fault here."

"Jasper is so mad at me... do you think he's going to beat me?"

Rose let out a quiet snort. "No, he isn't. He is not in charge here and punishing someone in anger is wrong, you know that. So why would Carlisle suddenly change the rules?"

"I don't wanna go back down there."

"Then how are we going to tell them what really happened?" Rose asked and just stared at her.

Of course Maddie wasn't really interested in looking into angry eyes, and since she had just told her everything, she probably expected her to take care of briefing the others now.

"You can tell them, I'm staying here," she suddenly stated petulantly and let herself fall on her side. Then she grabbed a handful of her bedspread and used it to clean her face.

Rose slapped it out of her hand. "Geez, would you stop smearing your snot on everything? This is brand new and you know venom stains don't come out again."

"I didn't like the colour anyways... and it feels too rough." It was mustard yellow and Rose knew that she found that colour to be extremely ugly... and she had told her that she thought the bed frame was ugly, too. Heck, according to her, the whole house was ugly. Never in her life had she seen such an ugly house before.

Rose could have rolled her eyes. ___Great, one minute sad and repentant, and the next petulant and wilful as ever._

When Rose groaned, Maddie added, "I liked my old one."

"We'll find a new one that you like."

She shook her head. "But I want my old one."

"We are not going back for something silly as a bedspread."

Maddie sat up again and looked at her with wide eyes. "But if we go back for something else, then we can pick it up as well. It'll only take a second!"

Squinting her eyes shut for a moment, Rosalie said, "Maddie, listen to me: We are not going back."

The girl sniffled and Rose sighed. "Next time we move, we'll make sure to bring your bedspread along."

"But I don't want _this one_!"

Sure... Rose forgot. Why the heck would she insist on taking this 'ugly' thing with her?

At that moment Emmett knocked on the door to inform them that they were expected downstairs. Rose patted Maddie on the thigh, then got up and opened the door to tell Em to stay up here with her as she didn't want to go downstairs.

Emmett looked a little confused at hearing that she wouldn't join his wife downstairs. "Tiny, Jasper is not going to touch you and Mom and Dad are in the same room."

"I don't wanna go downstairs."

"Okay." So he walked into the room, while Rosalie stepped out into the hallway and closed the door behind her, before she headed downstairs to the living room to tell the rest of the family what really happened and what Maddie's motivation had been to choose to use her talent on Jasper.

She descended the stairs and when she entered the living room, everyone looked up at her, then started frowning.

"I asked for both of you to come downstairs," Carlisle told her, and he did not sound amused that only Rosalie showed up.

"She doesn't want to and I cannot blame her. Jasper has been acting like he wanted to rip her apart."

"Rip her apart," Jasper scoffed. "I'm not going to torture her, just teach her a lesson."

"I don't think so," she retorted with narrowed eyes.

"Well," Carlisle sighed and ran a hand over his forehead to ease some of the stress that was engulfing him lately and especially today, "did she tell you anything?"

"Of course, that's why I'm here to speak on her behalf."

"Speak on her behalf... don't make me laugh. You need to teach her to take responsibility for her actions and do as she's told. She even refuses to come downstairs and then _you_ have to explain what _she_ has done... I don't even know if I want to hear it, this is ridiculous."

"Jasper, enough," Carlisle warned his son, while Rose rolled her eyes and shook her head, then took a seat on the opposite end of the couch her brother was occupying.

"Did she tell you that she manipulated me so that I'd attack someone and we would move again? Because we already know. That's what she learned from my... slip-up."

"No, she did not," Rose snapped, "it's the exact opposite actually. When-"

His face scrunched up in disbelief. "What are you talking about?"

Rose released a sigh. "She did use her ability on you," she admitted.

Jasper pushed his tongue against the inside of his cheek and leaned back in his seat, crossing his arms over his chest while keeping his eyes fixed on his blonde sister.

"... but not like you think," she added.

"Oh, please do enlighten me. I'd love to hear her explanation for this."

"She only wanted to help. We-"

Jasper sucked in a breath and was just about to say something, when Carlisle quickly held up a hand to stop him. "Let her finish, Jasper. No more interruptions."

"We moved because Edward thought it would be too dangerous to have a relationship with a human as you... smelled her blood. You felt guilty and beat yourself up over it and since that was the reason for our sudden move and everyone changed, she thought she could help."

"Help?"

"Yes," she affirmed, "help by making you unable to smell humans."

Jasper's eyebrows climbed into his hairline, but he didn't say anything.

"That is what she told you?" Esme queried and blinked at her blonde daughter.

"Yes."

"You were suddenly hit by the smell of a human when it wore off... that's why it took you so off guard and made it even more tempting than usual," Alice breathed as realisation hit her, before she stared at her mate with wide eyes.

His jaw clenched for a moment. "No matter her intentions, I almost attacked someone and it was her doing," he stated.

"Ugh, don't be such a jerk."

Carlisle tzked. "Rose."

Rosalie snapped her head around to look at her father. "I won't apologise, he is acting like a jerk right now! He is an empath, he should know how hard this move was on her. It was the first time! Nobody told her what was going to happen, we had the meeting without her and when she came home from school, we had already packed up and were on our way. And she was scared to tell Em or me about her feelings as she thought we would change as well. Everybody is sad and Edward is gone – so much has changed in such a short time and that is difficult for her."

Then she turned in her seat to address her brother once more. "Seeing that the reason for the move and Edward leaving was that you lost control over your instincts and almost attacked a human, she wanted to make you feel better by increasing your self-confidence and helping you overcome your guilt somehow. Additionally, she wanted to make sure we wouldn't have to move again so soon - and that's why she made you unable to smell humans. You did feel more confident lately, didn't you? Being around humans didn't make you nervous, hm?"

He exhaled heavily. "She knows it wears off after a while."

"Yes, but she didn't know it would be like that. Just try to understand her for once."

Jasper huffed. "How about she-"

"Enough. Rosalie, thank you for telling us what happened, you can go back upstairs now, if you'd like," Carlisle offered, and she replied by giving him a curt nod like she appreciated getting away from her stubborn brother again.

She marched in the direction of the stairs and slowly made her way upstairs.

"I'll be in my room," Alice informed her mate and her parents after blinking her eyes a few times, and when they nodded their heads, she followed after Rose.

Now it was only Jasper in the room.

"We'll be right back," Carlisle told him, then motioned for his wife to come with him.

* * *

They went to the adjoining room, and Carlisle leaned with his hip against the kitchen counter before he said, "I do think it would be beneficial if we let Jasper handle it this one time."

Esme looked appalled, glanced in the direction of the living room before she hissed under her breath, "Carlisle, you can't-"

"We cannot have this family constantly be in two camps. And they have never really taken the time to talk and try to understand the other one. It's been like this for years."

"You just heard him, he refuses to see that she had meant well! How can you possibly suggest something like that?"

"That way they will finally talk, hear each other out."

She looked at him sceptically. While she trusted her mate, she sometimes had the feeling that he wasn't always thinking clearly. "Do you really think this is a good idea?"

He took a deep breath before slowly releasing it again. "Yes."

She turned to the side and crossed her arms while she tried to make up her mind whether to support her husband and let him do what he thought would be best, or just follow her gut feeling that told her to not agree to this harebrained idea.

Of course he was right in a way - they didn't get along all that well and it would be nice to see them bond or at least talk to each other more. They were a family, and it was important for all of them to be able to trust each other and rely on each other. At the moment, however, it did not look like that was the case with these two.

Jasper was very hard-minded and meticulous when it came to their coven rules, so it was hard for him to tolerate someone who did not feel the same way about them. Maddie was just too inexperienced, and as long as she only made small mistakes, they didn't feel the need to monitor or punish her all the time. Jasper, of course, wouldn't agree. He was a firm believer that bad habits should be nipped in the bud - no ifs, no buts. He tended to be a bit more extreme than Carlisle when it came to that, and Carlisle barely let anything slide.

However, Carlisle focussed on showing compassion and understanding, while it seemed that Jasper was more interested in the well-being of the coven.

It would be beneficial for both Jasper and Maddie if he'd let her explain why she had manipulated him. He needed to understand her motivation for doing so and just listen to what she had to say, while she needed to understand why it upset him so much.

And without them or anyone else around, Jasper and Maddie would be forced to take care of this matter and talk it out, maybe even find solutions to evade similar problems from happening in the future.

Hm.

"Are you sure this is for the best?"

"I am," he replied and nodded.

"If it doesn't work, Carlisle, and one of my children gets hurt, I will hold you accountable. Mark my words, mister," Esme told him and held up a warning finger.

He cracked a smile. "While I don't like to be threatened, my love, I understand why you are scared. But I assure you it's for the best."

When she gave a weak nod, he put an arm around her shoulders and together they left the kitchen and made their way back into the living room where Jasper was still seated on the couch.

He lifted his head when he heard his parents re-enter the room and had to suppress a gasp of surprise when his father said,

"Jasper, we will make an exemption this one time. You..."

* * *

**Yep, that was the second chapter. I cut Carlisle off, because... you know... he talks a lot and I didn't want to let him bore you. Besides, it really wasn't that important :D**

**And I know... still doesn't look like a bonding story. Just wait for it.**

**Thank you so much for reading and reviewing, guys! Stay tuned for more!**


	3. Chapter 3

After having participated in the talk with Jasper and having tried her hardest to be supportive of her husband's decision, Esme suggested she'd go upstairs and get the girl so they all could put this matter behind them. The sooner, the better, she figured, but actually just wanted to make sure she wouldn't spend any more time than necessary feeling drawn between stopping this and just keeping quiet and letting it happen. She was horribly nervous and even a little scared as the well-being of her children was what mattered most to the brunette woman. So when they finished telling Jasper about what they had decided on, it was time for Maddie to hear it as well.

Trying to unnecessarily postponing this did not make any sense and the girl was probably already nervous enough as it was, so making her wait even longer was just plain cruel.

After climbing the stairs and making her way down the hallway until she reached her daughter's room, Esme knocked on the door and asked Maddie to come downstairs with her. Rose and Em led the girl over to the door before they headed for their own room, which left the girl to face her sentencing on her own.

Keeping her head lowered as though not wanting or not daring to gaze into her mother's eyes, Maddie walked right next to Esme as they headed for the stairway.

They didn't talk as they descended the carpeted stairs, but with her arm around her daughter's shoulders Esme seemed to be able to reassure her even without words.

Maddie was indeed nervous.

She knew she had screwed up and she felt so bad because of what could have happened – but she really hadn't anticipated it would turn out like that. She had achieved the exact opposite of what she had intended to do – but that happened more often than not, it seemed.

Much too quickly for her liking they reached the living room and it was only Jasper and Carlisle waiting for them.

When Esme and Maddie came to a halt by the couch, Carlisle briefly cleared his throat before he spoke.

"Rose told us what you've done," he said, and Maddie glanced at him guiltily before she hung her head again.

"She also told us why you chose to influence Jasper," he went on as she kept quiet and refused to lift her eyes to meet his.

Esme let her hand run through her daughter's dark hair in a caring manner, then left her side to stand next to her husband.

The girl had a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach and immediately felt a little lost and alone as she stood in the middle of the room with her parents standing in front of her and Jasper still seated on the couch, his eyes boring a burning hole into the side of her head.

"Do you think it was a good idea?"

Maddie shrugged her shoulders helplessly. She had thought it would help the family, but now she knew that she had been so wrong. Instead of helping, she had just managed to make everything worse in the end.

"Do you?"

Now she just shook her head to answer her father's question. Only an idiot would still think that it had been a good idea. It was ridiculous and stupid, nothing more. And trying to convince the rest of them that it had been brilliant would definitely not work. Well, technically they had forever, so she could spent quite a while trying, but she did not think she'd eventually succeed in changing their minds about this. Heck, if even she realised that it had been idiotic, then how in the world was she supposed to make someone else believe that it wasn't?

"We cannot ignore what happened and what could have happened."

She didn't trust her voice enough to not quiver or come out as a whine, and so she just nodded her head a little, hoping her father would see it and not insist she'd give him a verbal answer. It had been obvious right from the moment Jasper stormed into the house and accused her of manipulating him that they wouldn't let her meddling slide and just ignore that it ever happened. However, she was not prepared for what Carlisle would say next.

"We will handle the situation a little differently this time. I do think that it is Jasper who's mostly impacted by your use of your ability, so we decided that it would be best to leave it up to him to choose how do deal with your gross ignorance of the rules and the fact that you hazarded the safety of the entire family and this town."

Maddie gasped and lifted her head, gaping at Carlisle.

_This could not be happening..._

Like he was not at all fazed by her shocked expression or didn't even notice it, the blonde doctor turned his head to look at his son who still hadn't moved from the couch. "Jasper, it is up to you now. What have you decided on?"

Maddie glanced at him and noticed how he gave her a look that she couldn't quite read. "Let's go for a walk," he said in a steady voice while he gazed penetratingly into her eyes.

Leave the house, so it would only be the two of them? With no one else around?

It took their father only a few seconds to contemplate this idea.

"Very well," Carlisle replied and nodded his head in agreement.

_Seriously?_

Hearing him say that seemed to give her her voice and even some courage back, because her head snapped back around and she was determined to plead with him to change his mind. He always dealt with everything himself, so why would he suddenly let Jasper of all people take care of her mistake? "Dad, I'm really sorry, I-"

He cut her off by holding up a hand to silence her. "Go with your brother." was all he said.

She felt her breath catch in her throat at these words. So she really would be at Jasper's mercy now. That guy didn't know what sympathy or mercy was, and he wouldn't have mercy on anyone, much less her. Also, considering how angry he had been with her and probably still was, he was going to kill her.

Jasper got up from the couch and casually walked over to the porch door, opening it. Then he looked back over his shoulder at her. "I'm waiting," he stated.

No. No, there was no way in hell she would go with him. Okay, she had screwed up and wronged Jasper, but … this? He would beat the living shit out of her, and they were completely okay with that? Didn't they know what he would do once they were far enough away from the house?

Esme must have noticed her confusion and anxiety, because she stepped behind her and put her hands on her shoulders, letting her thumbs rub over her shoulder blades. It was a comforting gesture - this time, however, it did not have the desired effect.

Maddie felt completely forlorn.

"Madeline, go," Carlisle told her and nodded his head in the direction of where Jasper stood waiting.

She looked at him but there wasn't even the slightest hint of concern or sympathy in his eyes, and she also couldn't detect anything that would have shown her that he was just trying to test her. She wasn't a child anymore, so she would understand if he was just trying to see if she was still committed to this coven, still willing to submit to his authority and if she trusted him to make the right decisions concerning them – but he wasn't testing her.

He was serious.

"Mama?" she whispered fearfully and looked up at Esme's face, who still had her hands on her shoulders. She wasn't sure if she herself was trembling without noticing or if her mother's hands were shaking, but the feeling was not calming her in the least.

"It's okay, sweetie, just go with Jasper."

Tears form in the corners of her eyes and her voice turned frantic when she pleaded, "No, Mom, please, I-"

"Listen to your brother, Madeline, it's all right. Just go," Esme said and gently pushed her in the direction of the open porch door and Jasper.

Again, the anxiety and nervousness increased the moment her mother let go of her, and she felt like she was walking to her own execution.

She felt betrayed that they would suddenly change the rules and let Jasper decide on whatever punishment he saw fit. This wasn't his coven, he wasn't in charge here... but apparently he would be in charge of her for the next... hour? Hour_s_? Until the end of time? She had no idea.

There was no doubt in her mind that the hurt she was feeling about her mother letting this happen was showing in her eyes, but Carlisle just placed a hand on Esme's shoulder and neither of them said a word.

Gulping down the venom that was clogging her throat, she turned away from them and slowly walked over to Jasper who held the door for her. She looked back at Carlisle and Esme one last time, still unable to understand why they would do that.

If she called Rose or Emmett now, would they help? Or would it only make everything worse?

While she was trying to make a decision and still gazed back over her shoulder at her parents, she reached Jasper way too quickly without even noticing. He put a hand on her back and guided her outside, then shut the door.

Great.

"We're going to the forest," he informed her and pointed to his right so she would see where exactly he wanted to enter the surrounding forest.

Keeping his hand firmly pressed against her back, he made her descend the porch steps with him, before walking across their moist lawn and over to where tall trees marked the border between their property and the forestland.

It was the same path they took when they went hunting, but even though her throat seemed parched, she didn't feel the urge to chase after a deer as the pain was not rooted in thirst but in fear and desperately trying to keep herself from crying.

When they passed the first few trees and headed deeper into this gigantic damp cave of thick branches, ferns and rocks, Maddie thought about making a run for a it. She was outside with only one other person... but Jasper was quite fast and strong, and if he had complete authority over her now, it wouldn't be wise to piss him off further, she figured.

But why would Carlisle do that? And even Esme had agreed? That was so unlike her...

So even more things had changed.

She _really _didn't like this place – everything had been better in Forks. And it had been closer to Alaska. The thought of living so far away from Denali made her throat constrict tightly again, increasing the pain. ... Hey, would she still be able to see Tanya and the others or was this also not possible anymore?

Her mind raced with thoughts about a dark and sad future and how everything was suddenly going downhill, when Jasper suddenly pulled her from her panic by simply saying, "Stop that."

She gave a start and stood stock still, as she had almost forgotten where she was and who she was with. "Huh?"

He came to a halt just a few feet from her. "You are getting worked up over something," he stated with a raised eyebrow, "and I want you to stop."

_Asshole._

His tone of voice, together with the look he was giving her and her inner emotional turmoil brought out an emotion that often appeared when she didn't know how to handle the stress of too many influences at once.

Anger.

"Oh, I'm sorry," she apologised, but with a very heavy sarcastic undertone. "Leisurely walks through the forest are always making me nervous. My bad."

The look in his eyes changed and it immediately silenced her. Still, the thought of running popped up in her mind again and she was seriously considering just giving it a try.

He tzked. "Don't embarrass yourself by trying to outrun me. You don't stand a chance, little girl. Now _come__,_" he ordered and walked on.

She crossed her arms over her chest and scowled at him, knowing he would sooner or later see it.

And indeed, he turned back around, looking at her with this stupid, raised eyebrow again. "I _said _come. You are supposed to listen to me, remember?"

Yes, she remembered. She remembered quite clearly.

"This isn't fair," she complained and had to suppress the urge to stomp her foot.

He looked her up and down with narrowed eyes, having noticed her knee twitching. "Nothing is fair, now get a move on or I will drag you," he threatened.

She stayed exactly where she was.

He sighed, then made to grab her by the upper arm, but she moved out of his reach and glowered at him. "Don't touch me," she hissed at him through gritted teeth.

Then she walked on in the same direction before she had stopped.

It wasn't much further until Jasper pointed to a fallen tree, and they sat down. Maddie made sure there would be some distance between them – just as a precaution.

Neither of them said a word as they just sat there, staring at the muddy ground and the mossy tree trunks. The rainfall had ceased even before they had left the house, but raindrops were still dripping from the leaves and branches overhead, making it seem like it had never stopped.

Jasper cleared his throat, and she snapped her head around to look at him. "What?" she asked in a sharper tone than she had intended. The situation was making her irritable, it seemed.

He waited for her to put the attitude away and get a grip on herself, before he said in a calm voice, "You haven't apologised yet. Don't you have any manners?"

She swallowed heavily. While she knew that she had landed herself in this situation and that there was no one else to blame for her bad decision, she still found it to be exceedingly uncomfortable and embarrassing to talk about it. Yes, he had just reminded her of her stupidity and the heavy shame made her wish for the ground to open and swallow her up.

Shamefaced, her eyes on the ground, she said in a subdued voice, "I'm sorry." She _was _sorry, he should know.

He didn't say anything, and so she looked back up into his face to check if her reply had angered him or if he would accept her apology.

His eyes bore into hers, and just when she felt she couldn't hold his penetrating gaze any longer, he slapped his hands down on his knees. The sharp noise made her jump.

"You know, I don't feel like wasting my time sitting around the forest with you and I really don't care about your alleged 'intentions'. It's your actions that count, and with your manipulation you compelled me to go into a blood frenzy that would have ended many lives and exposed us for what we are. You knew of that risk," he accused, and when he went on his voice was lower, sharper and resembled a hiss that made Maddie feel a sense of foreboding creep upon her.

"This will never happen again, because I won't allow it. I will make damn sure that you learn what this disgusting habit of manipulating others will get you. Trust me."

She didn't necessarily trust him, but she believed him when he said that he would make her pay.

He reached out and quickly seized her by the upper arm, then pulled her swiftly over his lap.

It happened so fast, she didn't even have time to react, but now that she was looking at the forest floor, she cursed herself for not having anticipated this and tried to run when she still had the chance.

Maybe she should be glad that he didn't dismember her or set her on fire, but since he hadn't started yet, it could still be just as painful, if not more.

To make sure that he wouldn't have a reason to beat her even more than he was already planning to, she tried her hardest not to jump up and run even though she could do that as he wasn't holding her down yet... but she figured she shouldn't risk it.

The nervousness and fearful anticipation of what would await her now made her mind go blank for a moment and her body started trembling slightly.

She waited.

When she felt his right hand on her waist, she held her breath and tried to brace herself for what was about to come.

Any second now and he would begin... maybe she should be glad that at least he didn't use a belt and that her clothes were still covering the spots he was obviously aiming for and that would suffer most.

He tightened his grip just like Carlisle did right before he would begin, and she squinted her eyes shut in anticipation of the pain his hand would bring.

Seconds passed and she waited, listening for the sound of the first burning smack and expecting to feel it directly afterwards, but it didn't come. Instead she only heard him mutter a single word.

"_Peculiar._"

* * *

**Still not really any bonding yet... hm, maybe I'm doing it wrong, LOL**

**Next chapter will be up soon! Thank you for reading and let me know what you think! :-)**


	4. Chapter 4

Maddie felt herself being pushed off his lap and she fell to the wet forest floor, barely able to put her hands out in time before she would have landed face first in a puddle of mud. She looked up at Jasper with wide eyes and her mouth agape, too shocked to say anything and unable to grasp what had just happened.

He crossed his legs and bent forward to lean his forearms on his raised knee while blinking his eyes and looking straight ahead – it was like he didn't even see her even though she was right in front of him and he had just shoved her.

Suddenly he looked at her thoughtfully, asking, "What is wrong with you?"

He didn't sound angry and it wasn't supposed to be a rhetorical question – no, he was genuinely curious.

The confusion that surged through her immobilised her, and so she just continued to gape at him without even daring to breathe.

"I mean it, what is wrong with you?" he asked her in a soft voice, and hearing that he wasn't in any way aggressive or frightening, she drew a hesitant breath and blinked her eyes.

Sitting up on her knees, she looked at her dirty hands and quickly wiped them on the front of her shirt. "Huh?"

"I'd just like to understand," he said.

And she'd like to understand what it was he wanted to know or why he acted like a crazy person...

"I-I...," she stammered, utterly confused now.

He shook his head. "You would have let me discipline you for something you haven't done?"

Now she could feel her face scrunch up – she had no idea what was going on.

"That doesn't make any sense, so why would you do that?" he queried, still not making this any easier for her to understand.

He had told her that all of this was her fault, that she had manipulated him... but now he was suddenly convinced that she hadn't?

"Did you hit your head?" she asked carefully and scooted back a little to put more distance between them. The wet branches of a fern slapped against her upper arm and the moisture seeped through the fabric of her shirt right onto her skin, but she paid it no mind.

"No. You are not reacting like you should... why is that?"

"Huh?" She had half a mind to run home and tell the rest of the family that Jasper had gone crazy... but maybe they already knew.

"Your survival instinct, fight or flight," he explained to her, before letting out a frustrated groan that sounded almost like a growl while he raked his hand through his blonde locks in agitation. "I've been unfair with you, I threatened you, I even insulted you and your gift – and all you do is stare at me and apologise?! And then you were lying over my knees... I didn't even hold you down, you had ample opportunity to run from me or lash out – but you did nothing of that sort! How... _why_?" Then he gave her a look of disbelief and waited for her to say something.

Hearing that he was getting angry again as his tone was sharper and his eyes darkened, Maddie just let out a quiet whimper. She was so confused, she felt like crying.

"There was only one moment where you at least showed some kind of anger and resistance! Only one! I tried to provoke you so you would feel the need to defend yourself, but – nothing! You didn't even influence me!" he raged, then put his hands on either side of himself on the fallen tree and breathed heavily while looking away from her like she disgusted him.

She bit her lip and looked in the direction they had come from, calculating her chances of getting away. Maybe she could run from him and make it home before he would catch up to her... but Carlisle and Esme expected her to listen to him, so running would only make everything worse.

He must have noticed that him raising his voice was just confusing her even more, and so he exhaled a long breath that was probably supposed to calm him and he closed his eyes for a brief moment.

Shaking his head, he continued in a very quiet voice, "Nobody of our kind would willingly submit to an unjust punishment that would clearly bring pain but no gain. You need to explain this to me."

His eyes were locked on hers, and she squirmed.

"I don't understand," she whined and looked away.

He released a long, gutteral groan like he was annoyed that she was so stupid... "Why didn't you fight me?" he clarified.

Finally a question she could answer. "I'm not supposed to. And I used my ability on-"

"Get up from the ground and sit down next to me," he ordered.

She slowly pushed herself up from the ground and stood, but didn't immediately take her previous seat on the deadfall. She was feeling wary as she had trouble understanding what he was getting at or why he had suddenly changed his mind – and she didn't know what would happen next. The quick changes in his behaviour were unsettling and made him unpredictable and a little scary.

Maddie was incredibly glad that he had decided against smacking her and that she was still unharmed, but the way he was behaving at the moment made her fear what would await her now. And just like before, thoughts of running popped up in her mind again.

He looked at her expectantly as her eyes darted back and forth between him and the direction that would lead her back to their new home. And just when she made the decision to try her luck and just take off, she suddenly felt so much calmer and just slumped down on the old, fallen tree again.

He cleared his throat. "What did you want to say?"

Biting her lip, she answered in a subdued voice, "I used my ability on you without permission."

"And what did I just do?"

She frowned at him for a moment before she realised what he meant. "You calmed me."

Then he just blinked at her like he was expecting her to say some more.

"You just used yours on me," she concluded, making him nod.

Phew, she was glad that she finally didn't have to feel so stupid anymore.

"But that is different," she argued and shook her head at him. "You did it so I wouldn't feel nervous."

"And you did it so I wouldn't doubt my self-control anymore."

While that was true, she thought he had said he didn't care about her motive or her intentions. He could have killed tons of people, because of her, and now he was telling her that it's okay because she had only meant well by influencing him?

"Um..."

"Take your time, you'll get there."

"You're not mad at me...," she said after a minute, voicing her guess. Yes, she really had taken her time, because when he thought she was daft, then she could make him wait a little, right? And it had actually been the only thing that sprang to her mind at the moment.

He shook his head. "No, I was," he corrected. "Believe me, I was, but then Rose told us that I got it all wrong. You wanted to help – and I thought you were being selfish."

While she couldn't really blush anymore, she still felt her face heating up with embarrassment. "I was... I didn't like how different everyone suddenly was. I thought this would help," she admitted, her eyes downcast. She felt horrible that such a low motive had driven her to influence him and cause such a mess.

He almost snorted. "That's not what I would consider selfish. I change people's emotions often for all kinds of reasons... you had good intentions when you influenced me. It would have been nice to know beforehand and to be asked for permission _and_ it would be great if you would use your head a little more... but I don't see why you should be in trouble. Have I ever asked for your permission when I changed your emotions? Does Edward ask when he wants to read someone's mind?"

Neither of them had ever asked her if she would mind that they invade her privacy like that. It had taken a while for her to understand that they didn't always have their abilities under control, and that they didn't mean her any harm when they just read her private thoughts or changed the way she was feeling. While she could decide to turn all of them into puppets, they could bore their way into her mind or her emotional state 24/7, and she probably wouldn't even notice it. For the first few months, she had felt truly uncomfortable in their presence because of that.

"Carlisle said it's different, because I choose to use it and you guys cannot help it."

He cracked a smirk. "That's what Edward made him believe. Of course we can block emotions, thoughts, visions... we have lived like this long enough that it doesn't take much effort."

What he just said made Maddie feel a little better about herself. She wasn't a bad person for using her ability as it was a part of her, and even though she couldn't always anticipate the consequences of her influence over others, it was no more disrespectful and ignorant than what her siblings did with their abilities. But she didn't like to hear that they had intentionally invaded her privacy. And she didn't like that she was still feeling nervous.

"You were going to smack me," she remarked when she noticed that Jasper had stopped asking stupid questions. It sounded more like a statement than an accusation. Since she had expected to be in trouble for what she'd done, she couldn't blame him or anyone else for wanting to punish her.

"When I came home, I was," he admitted. "But just now? No, I wasn't. I just needed to know for sure."

"But you wanted to smack me other times."

"I most certainly did – but not this time. I was just trying to get a reaction from you. And You. Did. Nothing. Absolutely _nothing!_" he replied, getting angry all over again. "Why do you even have an ability when you don't use it in situations like these?! I was going to hurt you!"

"You just said you weren't!" she retorted, sounding appalled that he had meant to hurt her after all. _What a-_

"But you didn't know that! I can't believe you showed not even the slightest trace of defensive behaviour!" Frustrated with her and the situation and maybe even more things Maddie didn't know about, Jasper banged his fist down on the tree they were sitting on, making it break in half and sending pieces of bark and splinters of wood into the air.

She flinched back at seeing him losing it like that, then yelled, "Carlisle said you're in charge! I'd be in trouble with him if I had fought you!"

"Do you really think he'd have given me permission to whip you?" he queried and blinked at her like he thought she was completely demented. "Me? What makes you think he would do that?"

"How was I supposed to know?!"

He took a calming breath like before, and Maddie hoped dearly it would indeed calm him.

"That's just... I don't even have words to describe how mad I am right now," he said through gritted teeth.

Well, at least he wasn't yelling anymore and referred from breaking things.

"The only advantage you have is your gift, and you little idiot don't use it...," he pressed out, all the while shaking his head.

Luckily she wasn't scared anymore, because at the moment she was really, _really_ mad at Jasper. He let her believe that he was going to break her in two for influencing him, and now he was telling her that she should have done it _again_?

She got up and turned to glare at him, her hands balled up into fists. "You're the idiot here! I couldn't have used it because I was face down over your fucking knees!"

He huffed. "I don't even know how often I just stared into your eyes – what more do you need, huh?"

Damn, he really had done that... "I'm not supposed to misuse it!" she shot back.

He quickly seized her by the arm and pulled her back down to sit next to him again. It was obvious that he was still not as calm as he tried to be because his eyes colour was far from golden, but he kept his voice as soft as possible when he spoke again.

"Then explain to me how you are misusing it when you are in a possibly dangerous situation and need to protect yourself. You are unskilled and inexperienced. You are smaller, slower and weaker than me. You're a fucking child. I could kill you in less than a second."

She jumped up again at hearing that. He dared to call her a child and then told her he could easily kill her? What a jerk! "You just said you weren't going to hurt me!" she shouted, angry and shocked at the same time.

"You. Didn't. Know," he growled. "Gah, why can't you understand that?"

"No, I get it," she snapped and folded her arms across her chest. "You were testing me. Real clever, Jasper, bravo. Problem is, that it doesn't make any sense, because I don't need to be on the alert around you or anyone else. I'd be perfectly fine in a dangerous situation."

"I really have half a mind to slap you right now. You froze in fear and you were immediately convinced that you had made a mistake just because I yelled at you. You felt guilty."

That was true... she had felt that way. But that didn't prove that she wouldn't be able to fight if her life was in danger. "So? I can feel whatever I want, and I don't get why I'm not allowed to be a little scared when a lunatic is yelling at me," she stated petulantly.

He put his head back and covered his face with both of his hands while he let out a groan. "Because you weren't guilty, so that emotion didn't make sense."

Placing his hands on his knees, he then looked at her with narrowed eyes. "Your first reaction should always be to defend yourself, you didn't even so much as hiss at me. Show strength, not weakness. When someone accuses you of something you haven't done, then you cannot just let them convince you that you are guilty and accept consequences! You are so easy to manipulate, it makes me sick."

"Hey! I-" she started to protest, but he immediately cut her off by letting out a growl, then grabbed her and pulled her back down to sit next to him again.

"You can't defend yourself and you don't even know how to use your talent, otherwise you wouldn't doubt it so much."

"Shut up, that's not true! I know exactly what I'm doing and I don't doubt it," she retorted, then muttered under her breath, "it just goes wrong sometimes..."

He rubbed a hand over his face, groaning.

He liked groaning and growling, it seemed.

"And I didn't need to defend myself," she told him, "because we weren't alone. Rose and Emmett-"

"They won't always be there. And reacting to a threat is an instinct - growl, hiss, go into a defensive stance - but you cowered away."

"Because Rose and-"

"Yes, _they_ acted on instinct, they instinctively hissed and growled to warn me and make me back off, then Rose stood in front of you - that's a protective instinct. You, however, did fucking nothing, and don't you dare tell me it's because they were protecting you. An instinct is an instinct."

She huffed and turned her head away, not knowing what he expected her to say now. She didn't even understand why her emotions were such a big deal to him. Maybe she didn't react like others would - so what?

"Well, don't just sit there, explain yourself!"

"Leave me alone!" she screamed in his face and shoved him away.

* * *

**We're getting closer to some bonding, don't you think? Haha :D**

**Thank you so much for reading and reviewing!**

******Oh, and I think I will update once or twice a week now. Why? World Cup, that's why!**


	5. Chapter 5

Maddie was just in the process of turning away from Jasper after having pushed him, but he quickly reached out and grabbed her wrists tightly while giving her a dark look.

"At least some kind of reaction...," he muttered, then pushed her arms away. "Good."

She stared at him, again feeling confused about how he reacted.

"But don't you do that again," he added as a warning.

Directing her gaze to the ground, she tried to understand just what the heck he wanted from her.

He turned a little more towards her, then ran a hand through his hair and waited for her to look back up at him.

Maddie glanced at him when he shifted but didn't say anything, and the moment their eyes met, his gaze turned softer.

"You know," he said, I think your idea wasn't that bad..."

Instantly her eyes widened. Did he just praise her? This was Jasper, he didn't usually tell her that she'd done a good job with something... maybe he had indeed hit his head and was now suffering from severe brain damage.

"Would have been great to be under that influence on Bella's birthday," he added with a little, sad smile on his lips.

It was weird hearing him speak so quietly again after all the yelling and growling just minutes ago. And this half praise also was weird although it felt quite nice actually - she had never expected him to say something like this to her.

Her mouth turned up at one corner, and it looked almost like she was returning the little smile.

Yes, had she known what would happen, she would have definitely influenced him to make sure he wouldn't be able to smell Bella's blood. The day would have been just like the family had imagined, Jasper would have been able to enjoy it without holding his breath and keeping some distance between himself and the human. They'd still be home and not in this stupid, ugly house and Edward wouldn't have left. If Bella wouldn't have this weird brain condition, she would have even influenced her, so she wouldn't be so annoyingly clumsy anymore and stop bleeding or hurting herself any chance she got. It's almost a miracle that the girl still had all her teeth.

"I can do it again if you want," she offered after a moment of silence.

But he immediately shook his head without even contemplating her idea.

"No, the absence of the human smell and not having to worry about that was liberating, but when your influence wore off, the slightest trace of human scent was already overwhelming."

That seemed to remind her of something, and she frowned. "But it wears off gradually... that doesn't make any sense."

"Yes, it does. I haven't been outside and around humans for the last few days... it wore off during that time, I assume, and while I was out hunting today, I was not under your influence any more and my senses were sharp again."

"Hey, I didn't dull your senses," she protested while pointing a finger at him. "They were still working like they should."

No wonder he'd been so mad at her before...

He shook his head. "Yes, I know that, my brain just didn't register the scent anymore, but you know what I mean."

Nodding, she started chewing on her lip again, looking thoughtful for a moment.

"... I'll repeat it every two weeks maybe, then your bloodlust won't be a problem ever again," she suggested and looked up at him, hoping he would agree. It would be cool to have an important and useful task within the family instead of just cleaning up her room and going to school.

"I'd end up killing the entire town if we would forget one time. Maddie, you need to understand that I'm the weakest link when it comes to controlling our bloodlust, and- "

"You? I am. I lost it during the summer holidays and-"

"That was very unfortunate, but you only had a few drops – not enough to soothe the burning completely. If you have experienced it just once, you'll know how difficult it is after that to keep a firm grip on your urge to feed. I have drained hundreds of humans, so believe me when I say that I am the weakest link," he told her and it came out harsher than intended, because he quickly drew a deep breath and closed his eyes.

He was mad at himself.

Frowning, she watched him for a moment until she remembered something he had said to her previously.

"Hey... what did you mean when you said you had only pretended that you were about to smack me because you needed to know for sure?"

He opened his eyes again and looked at her like he hadn't expected to see her here, but then he cleared his throat and sat up straighter. "When I came home and thought you had made me want to feed on humans, you were feeling fear. It didn't make any sense, especially when I heard what you really had done, it made even less sense."

She shrugged her shoulders. "I could have been scared because I was caught as you had realised that it was part of my evil plan of forcing us to move again."

"No, being caught doesn't make you scared - you don't fear Carlisle. You just feel annoyed that it didn't work and then you are nervous because you know you're in trouble but don't know what to expect."

Tilting her head to the side, she asked, "No fear?"

"No."

"Hm... but sometimes it feels like fear."

"Maybe it does to you, but to me it feels different. I am an empath, Maddie, I know better what you feel than you do."

She snorted at that.

"I do. And since your fear was directed at me, I wanted to know why exactly you were experiencing that emotion and how you would deal with it."

"You know why."

"Now I do, yes. Still, I don't like it. I want you to respect me, but I don't want you to fear me."

"Then stop being annoying or scary all the time," she muttered.

He leaned back and stared at her, and Maddie even thought that she had heard a quiet gasp coming from him.

"So I'm truly scaring you?" he asked quietly.

Maddie cringed a little when she noticed that he was obviously slightly shocked about hearing that. He was good at hiding his emotions when he wanted to, but the look in his eyes showed her that he hadn't really been prepared for that. She felt embarrassed about admitting that he could be scary when he's angry, and she felt bad about having mentioned that, because it had really seemed to take him off guard. She really didn't want him to think that she thought of him as a bad person.

"You only did a couple of times... and today. Usually you're just annoying," she admitted and bit her lip when he continued to stare at her.

Then he blinked his eyes as though her words had finally registered in his mind.

"I'm annoying," he repeated dryly.

"Kinda...," she replied and when he just raised his eyebrows, she quickly added, "but not_ every day_!"

_Well, that didn't seem to make it any better... hm._

"How can you possibly call me annoying when you are the one who is annoying me?" he queried in disbelief.

"Huh?" She shook her head and scratched her nose. "I'm not annoying."

He snorted at that. "Yes, you are. You're loud and too easily distracted, and you never do as your told, especially when ___I _tell you to do something!"

"You're annoying whenever you tell me to do something! It's only ever stupid stuff you want me to do!"

"You are failing your classes, and when I tell you to do your homework and show it to me so I can help you, I'm being annoying?"

"Yes!"

"Now that's interesting...," he muttered and looked up into the tree crowns like he had just noticed for the first time that the rain drops falling from overhead had become less and less and a slight shimmer of sunlight was now breaking through the thick branches and leaves and illuminated the dull forest clearing.

"Who cares about school? We just moved, so it doesn't matter if I wasn't a good student at my old school. Now we have to start over again anyways," she said while her tone of voice turned noticably sadder at the end.

"That is no reason to slack of. School will give you something productive to do instead of just lying in front of the TV or playing video games all day."

She screwed up her nose.

"Believe me."

"I'd rather not. Besides, I'm training my fingers with the controllers... you need to be quick, but if you hit the buttons too hard, they'll break. That way I have enough practice to not hurt any humans when I touch them."

Yes, she had spent enough time with Emmett to know that he loved using that excuse. And she couldn't blame him, it was an awesome excuse after all.

"You can achieve the same results by holding a pencil and writing something down, or turning the page of a book."

"I do read," she replied with a shrug of her shoulders.

"For fun," he added and it sounded as though he was disapproving of doing something for fun.

Her face scrunched up in confusion. "Why else would I read something? You aren't making any sense. You have lived for so long already and spent way too much time not having any fun... maybe you should start now."

"What makes you think that I don't have any fun?"

"I'm not talking about what you do with Alice," she said, rolling her eyes.

"Me neither."

Maddie knew that that was exactly what he was talking about. They were married, it was okay for them to have sex and enjoy it, geez. He loved spending time with his wife - well, except for the shopping trips. He didn't have any patience for that and Alice quickly grew frustrated with his lack of enthusiasm.

"And what happens between Alice and me in our room is none of your business," he told her while eyeing her.

"Trust me, I don't wanna know what you do, so maybe you should keep it down or soundproof the room."

His eyes narrowed. "Do you talk to Carlisle and Esme like that?"

"No? Heck, for the first few months Edward always took me on a run or a drive to the beach when they and everyone else were going at it. Took me a while to realise, but he always made sure we would leave the house before you would start getting down and dirty."

She looked down at her hands and felt a tiny wave of sadness wash over her at the mention of her brother.

"You miss him, don't you?"

Taking a deep breath, she rubbed her hands over her thighs. "We're done here, aren't we? You just wanted to ask me stupid questions and I answered them. I wanna go back now," she said and made to get up, but Jasper stretched out his arm to hinder from doing so.

"He will come back," he told her in a soft voice, sounding almost as though he was trying to comfort her, "and our new home won't be that bad as soon as we have settled in."

She looked over at him, then slowly sat back down on the fallen tree and bit her lip. "Are you sure?" she asked hesitantly.

"Before Alice and I found the rest of the family, Edward had already spend a decade away from Carlisle and Esme. He came back. And we have moved so many times already, that I can guarantee you that this place is as good as any other."

"I don't like it here."

She looked at the ground and felt gloomy and sad again.

"You're not good with changes, hm?"

"Only the ones I cannot influence."

He nodded his head, obviously agreeing with her that changes were always easier when they didn't just happen and you had no other choice but to live with them and learn to accept them. "You'll get used to it."

"I don't think I really want to get used to it."

"Well, there is no other way, you don't have a choice. None of us does. We live forever and so we have to move more frequently than other people. Find a new place, settle down, start over. That's what it has been like for a very long time now."

She lifted her head and her eyes widened slightly as an idea came to her mind. "We could go to Denali and stay there!" It would be so cool to spend more time with their relatives, and they lived so secluded that nobody would notice them being different, because the people would barely get to see them. There was enough wildlife for them to hunt and drain, and she already knew that place and knew that she liked it there. So why stay in a place where nobody seemed to be happy when they could just as well go somewhere where everybody felt comfortable and content? It might even make Edward come back.

He just raised an eyebrow. "You wish to move back to Alaska with us? So many happy memories, huh?"

She turned her head away because his mocking tone and his words hurt her. Whenever she thought back to the time she had been in Alaska with them, she only remembered the rage and fear, the pain of the transformation and the thirst. She remembered the heavy confusion and the desperation, and she remembered that she had loathed them for having stripped her of her rights, her freedom and her choice. And forcing a life on her she hadn't wanted.

But her memories of Denali were good ones, and she missed the place and the people that had helped her through hard times and showed her that you didn't need to have a beating heart to feel alive.

He must have felt what his remark had caused within her, because he immediately tried to apologise. "I'm sorry, I did not mean-," he started to say and made to put a comforting hand on her shoulder when she suddenly snapped her head around and glared at him.

"Fuck you," she growled and evaded his touch by scooting away from him, then turned her head away again.

His hand dropped back to his side and his eyes narrowed. "Hey, don't you talk to me like that."

Letting out a huff, she got up from the tree and turned to face him. "But you can say whatever you want to me?"

He swallowed. "No, of course not. And I told you I'm sorry, I did not mean to say that."

"Then why did you?"

"It just slipped out."

She looked at him like she didn't believe a word he was saying. "Right," she scoffed.

"You don't believe this happens to me?"

And she just shook her head.

"But it does. Not as much as it used to, but still - more times than you would believe."

"No," she replied, refusing to believe him.

"Come," he said and motioned with his hand at the deadfall, so she would sit back down. She hesitated for a moment, but then slowly took her previous seat.

"I am almost 150 years older than you, but I was young once and it took me a while to be able to control my mouth and my emotions. But I grew up a little over the years, and you will too. We don't physically change, but we still change in a way. The times change and you learn over time, you change over time."

Admittedly, she didn't believe him that he had ever been any different than how he was now.

"Change? Why would _I_ change?" She still didn't like changes and she wasn't looking forward to more unexpected changes heading their way. And she didn't want to change.

"Because the world changes. Life changes. For example, we didn't have any cars or cell phones when I was growing up. Now look around you."

"A car changed your life? That's sad."

He groaned, like he was annoyed that she was always focussing on the wrong things in a conversation. "You know exactly what I mean. It's how the world is, the people that surround you, the city you live in. Everything changes, people learn from past mistakes and give their knowledge onto the next generation - history books become bigger and bigger, because-"

"Yesterday is history."

"Yes."

It grew silent between them again, and Jasper looked like he regretted not being able to comfort her in any way. She was sure that nothing he could say would be able to cheer her up or distract her.

"You know, I've never told you about my sister."

As she didn't seem to understand, she hesitantly asked, "Rose?"

She knew her already, there was no need to tell her about her.

"No, I had a sister in my human life."

Her eyes widened before she started to frown. She had no idea why he was telling her about her, and she was surprised how little she knew about all of them.

"She was younger than me," he said.

"... okay?"

"And you reminded me of her."

She felt her eyes widen again. "What? How?"

"I don't know, you have the same eye colour so maybe-"

"Nuh-uh, I'm pretty sure we are not related," she told him and leaned back, holding her hands up with the palms facing him. What a ridiculous thought... and didn't he come from Texas?

"That's not what I meant," he replied and shook his head. "I was just reminded of her when I saw you. Maybe it's just your age... she was fourteen the last time I saw her."

"And... why are you telling me this?"

"Do you have any idea how weird it feels to have a memory suddenly appear - and a memory of your emotions at that?"

"Um..."

"I hadn't thought about my human past or my other past for a while, because I am content with my life as it is."

"No, you're happy with it. You can say it," she prompted him, knowing that he used to have a lot of problems with adapting to the different diet and their cover, but now he actually enjoyed this family setting, the hunting trips and even school. At least that's what Edward had told her.

"Well, nevertheless I was very surprised, and I think you must have triggered it when I saw you."

It was uncomfortable talking about the days before she was changed. There were barely any moments when she hadn't been scared or in pain, and since her human memories were so foggy now... she was sure there hadn't been many happy moments. And the ones who had been okay definitely didn't involve him.

She wanted to forget about that and rather talk about something different, and since it was so silent because Jasper looked like he was deep in thought, she quietly asked, "What's her name?"

"Celia," he whispered.

A name of a stranger she had never met. She didn't feel anything - no curiosity, no compassion, no nothing.

"You know, I was reminded of how I felt about her - she was younger than me, and so I was the big brother who watched over her and took care of her."

Maddie glanced at him, because she didn't know why he would suddenly want a walk down memory lane - and share it with her. She wouldn't share her memories with him, so... huh?

"I wanted to protect her and help her."

"Help her with what?"

"I wanted to guide her and be a good role model. See to it that she would have a wonderful childhood and study hard so she would be able to make the best of her life."

"Is she still alive?" she asked, before she realised that she would be almost as old as Jasper now. And he was _old_. _Really old_.

Stupid question.

"She died almost a century ago, a married woman with two sons," he told her in an even voice, but when he swallowed, she could see that despite the years that had passed, her death still affected him and he missed her.

Would she feel the same in hundred years? Still miss her family with the same intensity as she did now? They always told her that time heals all wounds, and she had figured that if enough time passed, it might be true. Now, however, she was not so sure anymore.

"Did you... see her again?"

"Hm?" he queried, shook his head a little and looked at her like he had been deep in thought and forgotten where he was. "No. No, of course not. I was leading a different life, she wouldn't have understood. I wasn't a part of my human family anymore, I had moved on and they had to do the same. Life goes on, it always does."

"You never tried to see her again, even though she was still alive?" she asked in disbelief and he just shook his head.

"Are you retarded?" she queried, her eyes narrowed as she couldn't comprehend why he hadn't looked for his family even though he missed them.

He took in a sharp breath. "Excuse me?"

"How could you be so stupid? How could you not want to see your family again?!" He was alive, they were alive – it didn't make any sense to her.

"I wanted to see them again, but they wouldn't have understood what I had become."

She knew that he was trying to explain it to her and make her understand, but this was just stupid.

She snorted. "That's bullshit and you know it. You understood fairly quickly what you had become, right? So why wouldn't they? Do you come from a... moron family or something? Were they all demented and stupid?"

"Don't you talk about them like that."

"Well, that's what _you_ are doing. You wasted the chance to see them again or at least say good bye to them, and now you will always ask yourself what had become of them, if they had been happy, what you could have changed to help them and-"

"Enough," he said decisively to stop her, "That's not what I want to talk about."

"But I do," she replied and continued like he had never interrupted her. "Didn't you ever ask yourself if they maybe would have understood had you told them, and then you could have seen them again as often as you wanted to? Just think about it! You could have-"

"I ___said_, that is not what I want to talk about." It sounded like he was warning her to drop the subject or else, but Maddie had just gotten started. She really wanted to know his reasoning for not seeking out his family, because it would have been the first thing she'd have done.

"But-"

"_No!_" he shouted at her with dark eyes and balled fists.

She huffed and folded her arms.

His jaw clenched. "You have absolutely no reason to be huffy right now."

"I'm going home now," she said and got up, but he cleared his throat the moment her back was turned on him.

"No, you are not," he told her in a stern voice, "Sit back down, we are not done here."

"Says who?" she queried, but didn't wait for an answer as she just continued to walk in the direction they had come from.

"Madel-"

And she flipped him the bird before he could even finish calling her name.

* * *

**Come on, that looks a little bit like bonding, doesn't it? Fine, maybe not the ending, but just wait for it, guys.**

**And I'm sorry for the wait, but I just didn't have much time lately - heck, I didn't even have time to reply to your reviews... I'll do my best not to let it happen again. And the World Cup is over soon - tomorrow are the quarter-finals, whoop whoop! :D**

** Thanks for reading and reviewing everyone, next chapter will be up soon!**


	6. Chapter 6

Esme was pacing the length of the living room ever since her children had left the house, chewing on her fingernails while her eyes were darting about as she was just too nervous to do anything else.

"Esme, love, please calm yourself and take a seat. You are making me nervous as well."

She turned her head and let her hand drop back to her side. "I can't help it, Carlisle... oh, I'll just go outside so I won't bother you anymore."

With that said, she hurried over to the French windows that would open up to their wooden back porch and hoped she could make it to the forest before Carlisle would even get a chance to realise what she was actually planning on doing.

"Stop right there," he quickly said, his voice louder now as she was just about to vanish outside. He couldn't let her disturb their children now, no matter how nervous or fearful she was at the moment. "You are not going to find them now, Esme. Leave them alone, it'll be fine."

She wheeled around and narrowed her eyes at him. "It'll be _fine_? Carlisle, I don't think we did the right thing by letting them go on their own, this is bound to end in disaster."

Thinking back to what happened half an hour ago and the little talk they had in this very room, Esme couldn't help but see her daughter's face again and again when she was told to go with Jasper. Her eyes had held so much hurt and betrayal, that she had to hold her breath to keep herself from yelling at them that she wouldn't let this happen. But Carlisle had reached out his hand and put it on her forearm to remind her that this was for the best and that everything would be all right.

Now Esme wasn't so sure anymore.

They had let Maddie believe that Jasper was going to discipline her, even though he wasn't allowed to – but the poor girl didn't know. Had it really been necessary to scare her like this? Carlisle was convinced that it would help to get her to talk and explain her motivation to Jasper - he had feared that she would just be her stubborn self and ignore her older brother as long as she thought he had no authority over her.

No, she had to end this, get her two children back to the house, sit them down and talk to them about it.

As soon as she grabbed the door handle, she could hear her husband's sharp intake of breath.

"Esme," Carlisle said and sat up straighter in his seat as though he was preparing himself to run after her if she'd leave the house now. "Stop."

"I'm just going to water the flowers," she replied nonchalantly, but there was a little nervousness in her voice that she was unable to hide.

It was a lie after all.

He chuckled and leaned back in his chair. "You want to water the flowers after it has just rained for hours on end? While I'm no botanist, I do believe that it wouldn't do much good, let alone make any sense."

Her shoulders sagged and she blew out a sigh, then turned to look at him. "I have no idea what makes you think that this is going to work out, but I don't feel confident that we have done any of them a favour. I'll go get them now."

"Do you really think they are not able to talk things through? They are old enough to handle their differences or at least this one - on their own. Jasper wanted to talk to her, why do you want to hinder him from doing so?"

"It's not the talking that worries me."

Sighing, he shook his head. "He won't harm her, Esme," he replied confidently. "And Maddie won't do anything either. Just give them some time, putting their differences of the last few years aside will take a little more than just five minutes."

"They've gone for a lot longer than five minutes already," she retorted, and he just shook his head again and pointed at the love seat.

"Please sit down now. Read something, watch the news with me, just try to distract yourself a little. They will be gone for another while. And I do believe it's a good sign that they're not back yet."

She gazed longingly out the window, but eventually withdrew her hand and slowly headed for the couch in the middle of the room and sat down.

He was right. If they would be back by now, it would mean that they had spent the time yelling at each other instead of talking. Now however, it was possible that they were starting to really get to know each other and that would just take as long as it takes.

Esme couldn't sit still, but at least she managed to keep her eyes focussed on the TV instead of glancing at the window again and again.

She liked the thought of these two finally getting along, especially now that they had just moved and no one really seemed to feel comfortable in this place. It had nothing to do with this town or the people who lived here - it was Edward.

It wasn't just the fact that they missed him, but that they did not know where he was and if he would return. He left in a state of complete depression, his heart was broken because he had to break his girlfriend's heart, and the desperation and pain that his decision brought was threatening to crush her son's will to live.

And they had failed him.

Even though they had tried to do whatever they could to help the boy through this, they had clearly not succeeded. He was gone.

And because having one child that was feeling miserable wasn't enough, they had now added two more.

What a way to go.

Esme gave a jump when she noticed someone out of the corner of her eye.

"Oh, honey," she said with a little, apologetic smile and held a hand over her unbeating heart, "you scared me."

Alice gave her a sweet smile and skipped over to her before she slumped down on the couch next to her.

Flinging her dainty arms around her mother's neck, she gave her a quick peck on the cheek. "Mom, it's going to be okay. You always worry too much."

With a slight frown on her pale face, Esme replied, "Alice, I-"

"Don't you trust me?" the girl asked and leaned back a bit, tilting her head to the side while she was waiting for an answer.

"I trust you, Alice, you know that."

"They just need a little more time than you are willing to grant them - please don't go looking for them."

"But what if-"

"Hm... no," the spiky-haired pixie replied. "No, I can promise you that _that_ is not going to happen. Both will come back in one piece, no limbs missing."

Carlisle's eyes widened and he gazed at his wife and daughter with a slightly disturbed look on his face, and Alice just grinned back at him and let out a laugh before she hugged her mother tight again.

"Esme," the doctor half-chided, "is that the behaviour you expect from your children? Ripping each other apart?"

"I do not expect it, I... I just cannot help but worry, Carlisle," she apologised, while he just chuckled and shook his head in disbelief.

But Alice's comfort and the visions she was no doubt having, were having a calming effect on the woman's nerves.

Alice pulled away and her lips stretched into a wide smile when she noticed a little tear glistening in Esme's eyes.

"See? Daddy was right."

Esme cupped her daughter's cheek and smiled back at her. "Thank you, Alice. You don't know how much I needed to hear that."

"Believe me, I've seen how much you needed that," she replied and giggled. "And I've seen that you want to watch a movie with me. The news are boring, I already know what happens in the world," she told her, then snatched the remote from her father's knee and switched to a different channel where a romance had just started.

Carlisle distorted his face and quickly grabbed the newspaper from the coffee table to hide his face - he was so not in the mood for a chick flick right now.

* * *

The fact that she was never allowed to ask any questions, but was always supposed to answer tons of them got Maddie fuming with rage. It wasn't fair, and now that she just tried to understand something, she got yelled at.

"Come back here!" Jasper called after her, but instead of doing as she's told, she just continued walking like she hadn't heard him.

She felt a sudden rush of air rustle her hair, right before she was grabbed by the arm and yanked back.

"Don't you just walk away from me when we are having a conversation," he practically growled in her face, then pulled on her arm to make her follow him back to where they had sat before she decided to head home and ignore him.

Maddie could have laughed at how stupid that sounded. _He_ was talking and expected _her_ to be listening, plus she was supposed to answer whatever he asked her. She wasn't even allowed to ask questions! What kind of a conversation was that supposed to be? "Having a conversation? Right. Fuck off, Jasper."

"Mad-"

"Let go of me!" she yelled and tried to shake him off, but his fingers only curled tighter.

"No," he retorted. "Come."

He just dragged her back to the fallen tree, and while he was at it, he calmed her so she would stop putting up such a fight.

Maddie huffed when she noticed how she suddenly stopped digging the heels of her feet into the ground and followed him like a lap dog.

_Jerk._

The moment they sat, he said, "Don't you ever dare talk to me like that again."

"Or what?" she challenged, "You're going to calm me?"

They both knew that he wasn't allowed to do anything. She could talk to him however she wanted - there wasn't a damn thing he could do about it. And why should he? It wasn't like he was treating her with any respect, so why did he think that he could command respect from her?

"I don't insult you," he clarified, but she just rolled her eyes like the teenager that she was.

"You think I'm a fucking idiot, and you treat me like that."

"That's not true," he protested.

She just shook her head and looked away. "Oh, shut up, Jasper."

Scooting a little closer to her, he let his forearms rest on his upper thighs and clasped his hands together. He was obviously contemplating something, because a full minute passed until he eventually spoke again.

"What is really upsetting you right now?"

With a glance to the side, she noticed the look on his face and let out a little snort. "Oh wow, I'm starting to think that you aren't any smarter than me..."

He was being so ridiculous... now he suddenly realised that they wouldn't get anywhere with this as long as he refused to let her ask questions. But, of course, he was still convinced that he was infallible and she was just being defiant to annoy him, and now he would have to give in and talk to her about it or she wouldn't tell him anything anymore.

Releasing a sigh, he put both his hands on the bark on either side of him and leaned back a bit. "Fine. If you have a question, then... just ask. I promise you that I'll try to answer it the best I can."

She gave him a certain look, like she was trying to see if he was being honest. She did have a few questions, but she didn't just want answers - she wanted honest answers. It had kept her mind occupied for years now and getting answers to these questions was really important to her - but they would be worth nothing if he didn't take it seriously or just lied to her to make her drop the subject.

She fidgeted with her hands before she asked in a whisper, "What's it like?"

A frown appeared on his forehead. "What's what like?"

She darted a glance at him, and suddenly he knew.

This short moment when their eyes met told him exactly what she wanted to know.

Jasper sighed and shook his head, feeling somewhat exhausted that she still wasn't over that topic. "Why don't you ask Rose that question?" She trusted her, so she should ask her whatever she wanted and needed to know.

"I did," she replied in a quiet voice and squirmed a little, her nervousness peaking as she feared he would refuse to talk about it after she'd tell him what Rose had said.

"And...? Did she tell you anything about her family?"

She slowly nodded her head. "Yes, but when I asked her what it's like, she said I shouldn't ask questions like that."

Admittedly, he also was uncomfortable with the topic. Thinking back to his human life and the people he missed but hadn't been able to see again was painful, and he wasn't sure how telling her about it would be of any help. He knew that she suffered because she missed her family, and so he failed to understand why talking about their experiences and emotions was so important to her when it would only make it worse. And he was definitely not the right person for this.

"Emmett?" he asked.

"I wasn't sure if I could ask him after Rose said that," she admitted quietly and directed her big, sad eyes at him before she lowered her gaze.

"I understand," he replied and swallowed heavily.

She bit her lip and kept her eyes fixed on the ground, but after a minute had passed, she heard him clear his throat and slowly turned her head sideways to look at him.

"You might not like it, but I agree with Rosalie... you shouldn't ask these questions. It will only make you wonder what it would have been like, but we both know it wouldn't change anything."

She hung her head again and he felt her disappointment and sadness engulf him. Of course she was disappointed that she wouldn't get the answers she craved, and her sadness was what drove her to ask questions like that in the first place.

"I think the past is not a good place for your mind to be in," he let her know, and was immediately hit by a wave of defeat.

"But I just wanna know," she mumbled, sounding almost pitiful. Then her voice grew even more quiet as she added, "I... need to know."

"Maddie, I cannot tell you what's worse. You probably miss them all the same - the separation is final. Even though you know they are alive, you don't know how they are and the pain and sadness of not being able to see them is always there. Plus, you feel wretched for the pain you caused them by letting them believe that you are no longer alive," he said then added as though he was only speaking to himself, "At least my family was left in the belief that I fell in battle - Rosalie's family was never able to find closure because she was never found."

Maddie gulped.

"Maybe that's why Rose is the way she is... and maybe that's why she didn't want to talk about it. She's consumed by guilt and pain whenever she's reminded of her family, just like the rest of us who had to leave everything and everyone behind."

He let that sink in for a moment and noticed her flinch when he spoke again.

"Are you satisfied now, huh? Is that what you wanted to know? How painful it is? If it's harder to bear if they are still breathing?"

His tone was harsher than intended, and seeing how her hands started trembling and that her nervousness increased, he could have slapped himself for not keeping a firmer grip on his own emotions. She was feeling bad for bringing it up...

"No, I... I don't know," she stammered.

"Then stop asking yourself what you'd have done if they hadn't died and you would have been changed...," he said in a softer voice now. "You won't find an answer to that and you shouldn't, because it's not going to happen. Tormenting yourself like that won't make them alive again, you won't get to make that choice because you cannot change the past."

He hesitated for a moment, then placed a hand on her shoulder as he saw and felt that she could use some comfort at the moment rather than getting yelled at for working up the courage to ask a question that had been on her mind for a very long time now.

She squirmed under his touch, but did not shake him off.

"Sometimes history repeats itself," she muttered.

Removing his hand from her shoulder as if it had suddenly turned scorching hot, he leaned back and frowned at her. "Are you...? What in the world do you think could happen that you would find yourself in a similar situation? Not being able to see someone ever again even though you know the person's still alive?"

"You tell me."

* * *

**A slightly shorter chapter again, but all the talking is getting a bit much and I want them to go home again... unfortunately they set the pace. Seems like they have never taken the time to just talk and now they just got started and... well, this could take days, LOL Oh well, we'll see what happens.**

**To anon: Aww... you're a little cranky, sweetheart. Go take a nap :)**

**Everyone, thank you so much for reading and leaving a review!**


	7. Chapter 7

_"Sometimes history repeats itself," she muttered._

_Removing his hand from her shoulder as if it had suddenly turned scorching hot, he leaned back and frowned at her. "Are you...? What in the world do you think could happen that you would find yourself in a similar situation? Not being able to see someone ever again even though you know the person's still alive?"_

_"You tell me."_

Jasper felt more and more confused and that emotion brought yet another unpleasant feeling.

Stress.

He realised that his muscles were tensed up and he couldn't remember when exactly he had stopped breathing.

Yes, talking about uncomfortable topics and feelings could be considered stressful, especially when a certain person just wouldn't stop.

Why would she ask so many questions? And what was he supposed to tell her? There were surely a few things their parents didn't want her to talk about or even know about, and so he wasn't entirely sure what to do. They were in charge and he couldn't just ignore that fact and brief her about whatever she thought was crucial for her to know.

Besides, her questions seemed a little odd to him, and while he believed that she had thought a lot about her and their past and had spent quite a while questioning her and their existence in an attempt to understand why death wasn't always final and why she was still here, he had trouble understanding why she was asking this now.

And why she thought he could answer it.

Or why she would want him of all people to answer it.

Lying seemed wrong, so he just needed to figure out why she was steering the conversation into this direction in order to give her a satisfactory answer.

But did he really want or even need to answer her questions? If it was too weird or uncomfortable for him, he could just as well refuse. Heck, he was ranking way above her and wasn't obliged to even hear her out!

She hung her head as though she had realised the same thing, and when her sadness wafted over to him, he knew what he had to do and he knew he couldn't just ignore her.

"Maddie," he began slowly after he had unnecessarily cleared his throat, "are you talking about Edward?"

She just shrugged her shoulders while she started to randomly draw some lines into the mud with the toe of her shoe. It was just zigzag lines, and to him they mirrored the emotions he felt coming off her.

"Or is this about your classmates?" he probed, still unsure how to help her with what was on her mind.

"I don't know," she replied weakly, shrugging her shoulders again.

He frowned, unhappy with her answer, before he realised that she maybe really didn't know. She wasn't talking about anyone or anything specific, at least he wasn't sure if she was. She was just saying what came to her mind, and then waited for his reaction, waited to see if he would tell her more or tell her to shut it. Of course she was scared of what the future would hold for them while the wounds and memories of her past were still so fresh, and that was exactly the reason why she should let go off all that and stop talking about it. Concentrate on what she had now and where she was now. The people she was with.

"You didn't even like them," he remarked, "and Edward will come back soon. Just like last time."

Frowning, she turned her head to look at him and replied, "You said he was gone for a decade... ten years is not soon."

He leaned back while he eyed her weirdly. "Yes, it is," he told her.

With a small sigh, she just shook her head and turned away from him like his statement disappointed her.

Geez, how long would it take for her to eventually call a decade a short period of time? That's just crazy... she had no idea what time was to them.

"And some of the girls were okay... I guess," she mumbled.

He listened and contemplated what she had just said.

"Why do you care so much about humans?"

His question made her glance at him, her forehead creasing ever so slightly. "Why don't you care about humans at all?"

"Don't answer a question with a question," he snapped, but all she did was smile back at him.

Of course that would amuse her. Trying to get a rise out of someone could be considered a teen's favourite pastime.

And yes, she was now waiting for him to go first as she didn't speak and wasn't looking like she was going to start anytime soon.

Closing his eyes for a moment, he then scooted closer to her and clasped his hands together. "I do care about humans, that's why I try to keep my distance from them as much as possible," he said, and she seemed to accept that as an answer even though he could feel that she thought it to be weird.

Now it was her turn.

"Humans are everywhere, and I don't want to be home all the time. But I don't feel good when I'm all on my own... sometimes I just like company, I guess. Have some variety. And I cannot lose touch with my human side... I don't wanna be different," she explained but decided against explaining further when she noticed him tense beside her.

"Don't you think you should spend more time trying to understand our kind, preparing yourself for possible encounters with other vampires or just learn to be what you truly are?" he felt a touch of anger rising as he said that, and then, to his annoyance, she shrugged her shoulders again.

"That's not an answer."

"So?" she queried. "I don't know what you want from me."

He let out a sigh while he ran his fingers through his tussled blond locks. "You really don't know, do you?"

Squirming a little under his gaze, she just asked, "Can we go home now?" While she didn't sound whiny, he knew that she didn't want to talk anymore and so continuing despite her unwillingness would be nothing but tiring. For her and for him.

And what was there to talk about if she had no clue where she belonged to and who or what she truly was?

She didn't know _anything_.

"Sure," he agreed, feeling somewhat drained and tired now.

He helped her up, not that she needed any help, but he figured it would be a good way to show her that he didn't hold any grudges. And he wanted to check and see if everything was more or less okay between them.

She let him pull her up into a standing position, but then walked ahead without waiting up for him.

"Madeline?" he called after her.

"Hm?" she asked and turned around to look at him, but continued walking - this time backwards.

"You might want to dust off, Esme will have a heart attack if she sees you like that."

She scrunched up her face in confusion at his odd remark, then looked down at her clothes and groaned.

Yes, her knees and the front of her shirt was dirty as she had wiped her hands on it like a toddler would, and her entire left side, her shoulder blades and her bum were covered in mud stains. Weird that she hadn't noticed that or forgot about it.

As she stood there, wiping at the stains with her hands, it didn't seem to get any better.

"I can't get it off," she informed him, then let out a small whine. "I think I'm making it worse."

"Well, that's too bad."

"Hey, this is your fault," she accused and put her hands on her hips, her brows furrowed. "You pushed me."

"If you had better reflexes, you wouldn't look like that now," he pointed out.

"That doesn't change the fact that you pushed me. First you tricked me and then you pushed me to the ground. I could tell Esme, you know."

"You didn't react like you should," Jasper stated matter-of-factly while he walked past her, then continued to make his way through the forest in the direction of home.

Maddie just stood there with her nose wrinkled as she thought of something to say, but eventually just shook her head and ran after him.

Catching up with him, she forcefully bumped her shoulder against his upper arm, making him stumble to the side.

But he easily regained his balance before his head would have knocked a hole into the old tree to his right and glared at her. "Stop that."

"I was just checking," she told him and blinked at him, sounding completely nonchalant.

He couldn't help but look at her like she had lost her mind. "Checking what?"

Kicking a stone away with her right foot, she started to grin and replied, "Your reflexes."

* * *

The soft sounds of footsteps on the porch made Esme shoot up from the couch and turn towards the French windows with wide open eyes and a smile about to break out across her face.

Everything around her was forgotten when the door opened, and she sighed in relief that the waiting and the uncertainty were finally over. Not even Alice had endured her nervousness for too long and under pretence of needing to organise her closet (_"It's an emergency, mom!"_) she had hurried back upstairs and disappeared into her and Jasper's room. Carlisle had quickly changed the channel the moment he heard Alice locking her room door.

Esme had realised that it was because of her, but the slight feeling of guilt over chasing her little Alice away was completely forgotten now.

Her two missing children were back home, and just when they passed through the door, she hurried over to them.

"There you-" she started to say with relief in her voice, when all of a sudden the words caught in her throat. She stopped walking and she stopped talking, instead she just gasped and covered her mouth with her hand.

"What happened to you? Are you all right? Did you fight?" she asked when the initial shock wore off, the words leaving her lips in a rush before she continued to hurry over to them.

Jasper and Maddie managed to exchange a quick look before Esme smothered both of them in a bone-crushing embrace.

She hugged them so tightly, that neither one of them was able to draw yet another breath.

"Esme, love," Carlisle called over to her while he got up from his armchair and threw his newspaper onto the coffee table. "Let them breathe, please."

The overly emotional woman was reluctant to let them go, seeing as she had been sick with worry while they had been out in the forest, but now she finally had them back and was determined to not let them go anytime soon.

But with their strangled wheezing and Carlisle's soft prodding, she slowly and reluctantly removed her arms from around her children and took a step back to be able to properly look at them once again.

Now that she stood there with these two heavy breathing youngsters standing in front of her, her questions from before came back to her and she realised she still did not know what had taken place in the woods.

Her forehead creased into a frown. "What happened?"

"We talked," Maddie replied casually and shrugged her shoulder, but her answer didn't really satisfy the concerned mother.

"Are you both all right?"

Jasper gave her a nod. "Yes, we are."

"Did you fight?" she asked, her voice quieter now and her eyes quickly narrowing into slits while she eyed them suspiciously.

Now he shook his head. "No, we just talked, Esme, I assure you that that's all we did."

The woman nodded, for the first time feeling like she could truly calm down and be genuinely relieved that all had gone well, just like Carlisle had predicted. He's so very lucky that he was right, because otherwise... no, no need to think about that.

"You're dirty," she suddenly remarked as she looked her girl up and down. She still had no idea why she looked like that, and it had led her to the assumption that the talk had turned violent between the two.

"_You're _dirty," Maddie retorted, making Esme gasp at the sudden insult. She had just stated a fact, the girl was covered in dirt after all, but this was just-

Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Carlisle take in a sharp breath and pulling himself up to his full height, straightening his back, like he was just about to say anything, but Maddie was quick enough to pick up on that.

She immediately shook her head and pointed at her mother's sleeves.

Yes, all right, she was dirty too. That's what you get when you hug first and ask questions later.

"Come," she said and motioned with her hand for Maddie to follow her. "I'll draw you a bath."

"No, I don't feel like bathing. I wanna watch a movie." She made to take a step towards the couch, but Esme held up a hand to stop her. Raising her head, Maddie just blinked at her mother.

Esme's face was distorted and she slowly started to move her head from one side to the other. _The couch was made of brown leather, but still..._

"I'm too filthy for the couch, huh?" the girl figured.

Giving her a little, apologetic smile, Esme replied, "You'd feel a lot more comfortable if you-"

"Okay," she sighed and trotted in the direction of the stairs, "I'll go get changed..."

She didn't get very far however, because Esme held her back by her arm.

"Thank you, sweetie. I'll bring the box with our movies up from the basement. I wanted to put them on the shelves before, but it must have slipped my mind. And could you please...?" she trailed off but glanced down at the girl's muddy shoes again and again.

After Maddie had kicked off her shoes, because Esme would flip if she'd have mud trails all throughout the house, she then left the room and headed for her own to put on some clean clothes.

Esme motioned for her son to take off his shoes as well, then put both pairs outside on the porch before she made her way down to the basement.

Now it was only father and son in the living room.

Carlisle stepped up to Jasper with a smile on his face and raised his arm as though he wanted to put it around his son's shoulders in a fatherly manner, but Jasper took a step back and out of his reach.

The boy's jaw clenched for a moment, which made the muscle twitch under his skin, before he briefly cleared his throat.

"Carlisle, I'd like to talk to you," he said, and when the doctor started to nod his head, he glanced at the staircase and added, "In private."

"Sure, son, let's go to my study," Carlisle suggested as he also could hear his wife coming back upstairs from the basement.

While they ascended the stairs on their way to the second floor, Jasper let his father feel his lingering anger that he had been able to soothe for a while, but now allowed it to bloom and rise back to the surface.

The blonde leader shot a sideways glance at his boy when the heavy emotions hit him, but then he directed his gaze back to the stairs and the hallway ahead. He couldn't see why Jasper was suddenly feeling so very furious, but he was sure that he'd find out soon enough.

As they walked on, Jasper remained quiet and Carlisle also didn't speak, knowing it would soon change when they would reach his study down the hall.

The door was ajar, and Carlisle let his son enter first while he motioned with his hand at one of the chairs standing in front of his desk, inviting him to take a seat and make himself comfortable.

But just before Carlisle shut the door to grant both of them the privacy his son had asked for, he noticed that Jasper's eyes were narrowed and had turned pitch black.

* * *

**Aah, sorry bout the wait. I'll soon have more time to write and then the updates won't take that long again... I hope ;)**

**Thanks for reading and reviewing guys and... yup, stay tuned!**


	8. Chapter 8

Maddie jumped over the backrest of the couch and landed on the broad sitting surface with a soft thud. She quickly wiped strands of her hair out of her face and then hugged her knees to her chest in a way of getting comfortable for a nice, relaxing movie that would hopefully help her take her mind off things.

"What are we going to watch?" she queried and looked up at her mother standing by the TV.

Esme eyed her, checking if she had indeed changed into clean clothes like she was supposed to, then turned around and plucked a DVD from the cardboard box she had just brought up from the basement. "This one maybe?" she asked while showing her a movie that looked suspiciously like something a five-year-old would enjoy.

Maddie wasn't five.

Well, she was three actually, but not in the human sense.

"I... I've seen that one already, Mom," she quickly told her and tried to hide that she was shocked beyond belief that they would even have something like that at home. "Do you have something else?"

"How about this one?" the brown-haired woman suggested with a little, hopeful smile and held up something that her daughter might not have watched yet or wouldn't mind watching again.

Maddie agreed. This was the first time that Esme was not acting like she belonged in a mental institution, and it was the first time ever since they moved here that Maddie didn't feel uncomfortable in her presence and wanted to get away from her as quickly as possible. She was still not feeling at home in this place, even though talking to Jasper had helped a little bit, but if everyone would stop acting so weirdly and start being themselves again, she might accept this new house and this new town and try not to look back.

"I'll ask Em and Rose if they wanna join us!" she exclaimed and made to get up, but Esme shaking her head made her freeze and look up at her with a questioning gaze. "Huh?"

"They aren't home, dear."

"What? Why?"

Esme shifted her weight from one foot to the other. "I'm sorry, but they have left the house half an hour ago. Emmett said something about his car."

_They left?_ "Oh... okay."

Her reaction seemed to make Esme nervous, and so she just shoved the disc into the DVD player, grabbed the remote and headed for the couch the girl was sitting on.

In order to not waste any time, she seated herself right next to her and immediately switched the TV and the player on, then waited for the menu to appear.

"Mom?"

Esme glanced at her. "Hm?"

"You know," Maddie began and took a deep breath before she continued, "when I was in the forest with Jasper, well, even before we left the house... I was scared."

"He wasn't allowed to discipline you, sweetheart," Esme tried to assure her and patted her knee, then quickly looked elsewhere again.

"I thought he was."

"I know, dear."

Maddie's face scrunched up in incomprehension. "You _knew_? Then why didn't you tell me? That's really mean of you... he was so mad and I thought he was going to hurt me."

Esme swallowed heavily, seemingly uncomfortable with the topic. "Your father thought it's for the best to let Jasper handle this and let him do the explaining. You weren't supposed to know what would happen."

The girl got up from the couch and turned around to face her mother. "That was his idea and you _agreed_? Why? Why would you do that?" she demanded to know, her voice raised.

"I thought that-" "- that he's always right? Well, I think his idea sucked and you're mean for agreeing to that."

"Maddie, you talked it out, didn't you? All went well. But if you and Jasper haven't solved the matter, then you can tell your father and-"

"No... no, I really don't feel like seeing him right now," she stated petulantly, crossed her arms and turned her head, looking away from her mother.

"Made-" "Can we just watch the movie now? I don't wanna talk."

Maddie sat down again and scooted back on the sitting surface, hugging her knees to herself again as she wanted to be comfortable but didn't feel like lying down and resting her head in her mother's lap as she normally would have done. Admittedly, she was disappointed in her mother for sending her off with Jasper when she knew that she'd been scared... and Carlisle's idea of keeping information from her was hurtful. First he had tricked her, and then Jasper had tricked her.

And at the moment it didn't matter to her that the talk had went well, they had still lied to her. All of them.

When the movie started, Esme leaned back and put an arm around her daughter's shoulders, driving her hand up and down her upper arm.

Despite her anger and disappointment over the fact that they hadn't told her a thing, Maddie didn't think she should let her see how much it bothered her. The woman had been acting so weird ever since Edward had left, and she didn't want to make it worse by scooting away from her now.

And so she willed herself to forget about it now and just tried to enjoy the movie.

Esme seemed to relax when she noticed that she didn't shake her arm off or move away from her, and then she hesitantly pulled her closer to herself.

It was obvious that Esme needed her forgiveness.

But when Maddie put her head on her mother's shoulder, Esme tensed and then sniffed the air.

_Oh, come on..._

Esme pulled away, then looked her up and down before she moved her hair away from her shoulder, revealing her neck.

"What...," she mumbled, squinted her eyes and scratched her nail over a crusted spot on the girl's neck. "You have mud on your neck... and it's in your hair too! Oh, Maddie no!"

"... so?" The girl felt tired after all that had happened on this day, and she really didn't care about a few mud stains on her skin... They drained forest animals on a regular basis. These things were dirty, had parasites, poop around their buttholes and didn't always smell awfully mouth-watering... and if you caught them and didn't kill them immediately, they struggled against you and some even peed themselves out of fear. So why the heck was a little mud a problem for this woman now?

"You cannot possibly tell me that you are feeling comfortable that way!"

Wow, Esme had forgotten fairly quickly that Maddie was actually a little mad at her and that she was supposed to have a guilty conscience. But yes, let's talk about mud.

"I didn't even know it was there... Mom, please. It's nothing, who cares?"

She held her hands up in a placating manner. "All right, if you don't mind..."

"No, I don't mind. Can we watch the movie now?"

Esme sighed, but nodded. "Sure."

However, they didn't.

Well, Maddie tried to concentrate on the TV screen, but her mother seemed uncomfortable with having mud in her house and glanced at her again and again, until the dark-haired girl couldn't take it anymore.

"Fine," she groaned and jumped up from the couch. "I'll take a shower."

"Oh!" Esme breathed as though she was taken by surprise by her daughter's brilliant idea. "You don't have to, love. But if it makes you feel better, I'll stop the movie until you're done."

"Thanks, Mom..."

The girl sped upstairs, taking two steps at a time, and disappeared into the bathroom down the hall.

She was tempted to take a bath now, as it would grant her more time to herself and get rid of the annoyance she was currently feeling, but then she decided against it.

Esme was still shaken over Edward's sudden departure and she was dealing with this by going into her extreme cleaning bug mode, and it wouldn't make any sense to 'provoke' her now or start an argument. It wouldn't help to dwell on the fact that they had sent her to go with Jasper without telling her what was going to happen, even though they knew she was a little afraid of him when he was angry.

She was angry and felt cheated, but it wouldn't make her feel better if she'd yell at Esme now and make her feel bad – she just wanted everything go back to normal, everything to get better again.

And if her siblings were right, it would get better.

* * *

Carlisle pushed his hand against the door to close it, then stepped over to his desk, again motioning for his son to take a seat. His face was distorted with confusion about his son's obvious rage and he asked, "Jasper, son, what is-"

"I cannot believe you would take risks like that," the soldier hissed sharply at his father.

He blinked at him. "Risks?"

"She poses a danger to the coven and to herself!" he clarified, his eyes darkening further - if that was even possible. He looked like an enraged newborn, ready to attack.

"Son," Carlisle said and sat down in his desk chair with the intention of getting his son to take a seat as well so they would be able to have a proper conversation, "she made a mistake and I assumed you'd talked to her about the risk her behaviour had brought. Is she still determined to do it again?"

Jasper looked at him like he was crazy. "Carlisle, this is not about her manipulating me! This is about her _not_ manipulating me!"

It probably wasn't too hard to understand that Carlisle was utterly confused now. What his son just said made absolutely no sense to him.

Maddie had admitted that she had used her ability on him – her intention had been to help him and the rest of the family, even though it had become dangerous the moment her influence had worn off completely while Jasper was out hunting.

Oh... maybe he had thought about it and decided that it had been a good idea, and now he was furious that she had refused to do it again? Poor boy, and now he wanted him to convince her to continue to block her brother's bloodlust. If she would refuse, he was supposed to command her to do it.

"Did she give you a reason why she refuses to do it again?"

"What?!" Jasper's face scrunched up in bewilderment, but his chest was still heaving from angry breaths.

Clearing his throat and leaning back in his chair, Carlisle again motioned at the wooden chair on the other side of the desk before he clasped his hands together. "I think you need to explain a little bit further," he calmly replied.

Jasper still didn't move from his spot and remained standing. "She is absolutely clueless and useless!" he raged. "An embarrassment to our world!"

Carlisle's face hardened at hearing his son's choice of words. Insulting the girl, his own sister, like that was beyond unacceptable.

With one hand raised, he called, "Enough! What has gotten into you, boy?"

"I am ashamed that we are members of the same coven, Carlisle."

"Jasper!" Carlisle shot up from his chair and fixed his son with a stern gaze. The boy, however, was not fazed it seemed as he just continued with his rant.

"Don't you realise the danger you have put us all in? You are hazarding everyone's lives, and you don't even feel a hint of guilt or remorse."

Oh, so this was more about him as their leader than about the girl.

Rubbing a hand over his face, Carlisle let out a sigh. "What would I feel guilty for?"

"Don't pretend you don't know what I'm talking about. What is she? What is she _supposed_ to be, huh? She's clearly not one of us, because her reactions, her senses and her priorities are not the ones a vampire would have."

Carlisle's eyes narrowed and he put his hands on his hips. "Jasper, what are you hinting at?"

"She wouldn't survive a week on her own out there," he almost growled and pointed at the window. "She cannot fight, not even her reflexes or her instincts are the way they should be... she's useless! And all because of you."

Shaking his head, the coven leader crossed his arms over his chest now. "She doesn't need to be able to fight as we are making sure she'd never find herself in a situation where she-"

"It's _dangerous_, Carlisle, a hazard! She cannot even protect herself from harm, and she sure as hell would never be able to protect one of us. You are endangering her and the rest of us by not preparing her or letting us teach her how to fight!"

"Jasper, you are clearly overreacting," the older man reproved.

"Overreacting?! What the fuck have you turned her into, Carlisle? She's not human anymore, but she's also not one of us. She's nothing, a pathetic excuse for a vampire. How could you do this?"

"Jasper, no more," the doctor instructed as calmly as ever, even though his voice had a strict undertone to it.

But maybe that calmness was what brought Jasper's temper spiralling out of control, because he suddenly reached out, grabbed a book from the desk and threw it forcefully against the wall, just a foot from Carlisle's head. "Take responsibility for what you've done, God dammit!"

And all of a sudden it was quiet in the room – neither one of them moved or even drew a breath.

The loud bang had probably been heard throughout the house, but at that moment Carlisle hoped that the girls would wisely stay out of it and let him handle the situation. He didn't want them involved in this.

Carlisle looked at the wall, then at his thick medical book lying on the floor. With one eyebrow raised, he slowly turned his head back around and locked eyes with his son.

"Pick that up _right now_, or bend over the desk."

His kneejerk reaction had shocked Jasper as well, and it looked like he was surprised that his father wasn't already whipping him after that little stunt.

He ground his teeth together, but then walked past the mahogany desk and his father who was eyeing him like a hawk, and picked up the book to place it back on the desk top.

Then he resumed his position by the visitor chair and lowered his head.

"She is perfectly adjusted," Carlisle let him know when he was sure that his son was more or less calm now and prepared to listen. "By making sure she keeps her human habits and interests, she fits right in with the humans surrounding us. She's doing a marvellous job."

Lifting his head to look at his father, Jasper said, "We are not human, Carlisle, and we will never be. No matter how hard you try, we will never be like them again."

"I know, son, but this is safe. She has her bloodlust under control, she doesn't raise suspicion – the way she keeps up the cover, she is as safe as she can be with us and doesn't feel uncomfortable playing her role. Our cover is what has kept us alive and well for almost a century and she is contributing just like everyone else is."

"When we're among humans maybe, but what about our kind?" he queried, his voice rising in anger again.

"Control yourself, Jasper, and lower your voice," Carlisle warned him. "There has only been one chance encounter with nomads or the like before."

"Yes, and she thought they were newborns!" he shouted, his father's warning and his attempt at being calm completely forgotten again. "You cannot possibly tell me that that is totally fine with you! She doesn't know anything and isn't prepared for the world out there!"

Carlisle took a calming breath to make sure he wouldn't let his own anger take over and fuel his son's rage even more. "Alice keeps her eyes open, so to speak. It won't happen again. And it was 'only' Bella who was in danger, no one else."

"No one's gift is infallible, you know that! The little Maddie knows about vampires, they'd torture her to death just for the hell of it. There is no puppy license in our world, she is fair game. For fuck's sake, Carlisle, open your eyes! Even a two day old newborn knows more about us than she does. And of course it will happen again, but next time it's her life that's going to be at stake!"

"Son, you are overreacting. Take a deep breath and watch your mouth when you are speaking to me. I've tolerated it long enough, but this will stop now."

It didn't stop, and Jasper wasn't even listening to a word he said.

"Stop experimenting on her! Is that what you want? See how much you can curb her vampire nature by keeping and treating her like a human?"

"Jasper-"

"Oh no, I get it. You are using her to make yourself seem more human. Someone who looks and acts like a child is a better cover than a bunch of disturbed, adopted adolescents, huh?"

"Boy, watch it. And take a seat, _now_."

There was a fair amount of defiance in the soldier's eyes, but to his father's surprise he finally pulled a chair out and flung himself into it.

Carlisle waited another moment to check if he was ready to listen to him now, then gave a nod and sat down behind his desk. "That is not what it's about, Jasper. It is better for her that we encourage her human behaviours rather than teach her to act out on her vampire nature," he explained and folded his hands together on the table. "It's easier for her to slowly learn more about our world, because right now, we are living amongst humans. Our cover is our top priority, it's what keeps us safe and lets us stay in one place for longer than just a few days or weeks. The animal diet is something we all try to follow, and that's why we have never brought her a human to feed on. She won't miss what she doesn't know."

"I'm not saying that she should feast on humans now, I just think that she doesn't belong anywhere because she has no clue who or what she is. She doesn't know anything and she'll never be able to live on her own like the rest of us. You'd sent her to her own death if you'd allow her leave like that," he accused in a low but furious voice and narrowed his eyes.

Giving him a warning look, Carlisle said, "Nobody is going to be sent from this coven. I appreciate your concerns for your sister, but you can rest assured that-"

"- that she will never be able to do anything else but play a pubescent student. Play a human girl. You cannot be serious, Carlisle." He laughed without humour and leaned back in his seat, rubbing his hands over his face as though he was frustrated with his father's ignorance.

"Look at me, Jasper," Carlisle ordered.

When their eyes met, he went on. "There is plenty of time to teach her about our kind, but for now we won't change anything. Besides, you know that she wants to be among humans."

"No," he disagreed and leaned forward in his seat. "She just doesn't know anything else."

Now even Carlisle felt like laughing, but managed to keep himself from doing so. "Do you want her to live a life in a coven like the one you trained and led to war?"

Jasper released a breath. "No."

"And that's why she doesn't need to know about wars, about deaths, torture and mind games. About disposing of life like it is worth nothing. I have been around for a lot longer than you, boy, and I am perfectly aware of how most of us are leading their lives and how quickly it is taken from them. That is not what she would want, and we are keeping this from her for her own good."

"The knowledge won't turn her into a ferocious beast, Carlisle."

"But it won't help her either," he retorted and shook his head. He was glad that they were finally having an actual conversation, but Jasper did not share his point of view or even try to understand where he was coming from.

He snorted. "You keep telling yourself that you are doing the right thing, that you are keeping her and us safe when all you do is lying to her and dooming her. The moment she decides to spend time on her own away from the coven, just like Edward is doing right now, she's dead and you know it."

"She's gifted, Jasper. Why do you think she has that talent and not a different one? Have you never asked yourself why she developed this specific ability?"

"She doesn't know when and how to use it! That ability is completely wasted on her!" he yelled, then jumped up from the chair and headed for the door. "If you won't do anything about it," he told him in a low, dark voice, "I will."

Now Carlisle also got up and with his hands on his desk, he glared at his son through darkened eyes. "You will do no such thing, and Sit. Back. Down."

"No, you are putting all our lives at risk and weaken the coven, but that will stop now," he growled and grabbed the door handle, before he wrenched the door open, almost breaking it out of its hinges.

"Jasper, enough! She's-"

The empath snapped his head around and angrily bared his teeth at his coven leader. "She's what?! A goddamn cripple is what she is, and you know it! A disgrace to our kind! Just teach her or kill her already, you fucking coward! What are you waiting for, huh?" he shouted, then forcefully pulled the door open further to finally get out of Carlisle's study and away from him. He was too angry at the moment, and the way he was feeling he wasn't sure if he could really manage to control himself any longer or just lose it and destroy half the room... or attack Carlisle.

He needed to cool off immediately, and so he sped out into the hallway on his way to his and Alice's room.

"_Boy, you come back here this instant!_"

He barely heard his father's order or his footsteps as he sensed movement to his left at the same time as a smell tingled his nose. It was the artificial scent of body wash and shampoo, and as he whipped his head to the side, he saw a discarded towel lying on the floor and caught a whiff of his sister's scent.

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**Here we go, chapter 8 :) Yep, Jasper is really ticked off with our dear coven leader... and now Carlisle is angry too, hehe... vamps are hard to control.**

**To the guest reviewer: Nap wasn't long enough, my friend. Try again!**

**Thanks for reading and reviewing guys! Hope you have/ had a great day!**


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